Far From Home
by ImCurious
Summary: Australian Bella & Emmett move to Froks to live with their Uncle Charlie after the death of their parents. Same language? Maybe. Sometimes not. Differences in customs and mannerisms make their introduction into the usual crew a fun, dramatic & bumpy ride.
1. Chapter 1

**My first fic, I hope you enjoy...**

**Disclaimer: SM of course owns all her characters etc, they're just a great vehicle for this story I've had in my head for forever.**

**Through the Beta process it has been brought to my attention that there are many an Australianism in the writing - more than I actually thought! Definition of terms will be at the end :)**

**Thanks to Flibbertigigdet and HEAR for your BETA work!**

Far From Home

Prologue:

The next morning I woke up to something hard and scratchy under my cheek. With bleary eyes I pulled back to focus on the offending object. A blue booklet lay on my pillow, understanding dawned on me, and I buried my face in my other pillow, muffling my curse, "Shit, Emmett!"

And now I had to deal with this. I dressed in my Mavi jeans with a long sleeve white tee with my favourite Billabong hoodie with pictures of trees and birds and rabbits on it – I would need something to cheer me up today, and my favourite clothes from home were probably going to get the best result.

I went downstairs to have breakfast with Charlie and start what I knew was going to be the first long day of many.

"Morning, Bella." Charlie was already at the table eating and reading the paper.

"Hey, Charlie." I went about getting some porridge together.

Once I was sitting down with my steaming bowl, Charlie looked up from the paper to the clock. Here we go.

"Emmett should probably get up now."

"Um, I think Em's already up, Charlie."

"Oh? I didn't see him this morning."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he left before you got up."

"What, like for a run?"

"No."

"Well is he already at school?"

"I doubt it."

"That doesn't give me a lot, Bella. Where is he?"

"I don't know." It was the truth. I had no idea where Emmett was, I just knew he wasn't here.

Charlie gave me a look that told me he did not believe me at all and went down to the basement to check on Emmett. I kept eating, knowing he would find nothing.  
>Emmett was gone, and who knew when he would be back.<p>

"He's not down there," Charlie stated on his return. "Where did he go, Bella?"

I looked up from my breakfast to look Charlie in the eye.

"Walkabout."

"Uh, what?" His confusion evident on his face.

"He's going through a bit of stuff at the moment, Charlie. He'll be back soon."

"Like when?"

"When he's ready."

"But where did he go?"

"I have no idea."

"Are you positive about that, Bella?"

"Seriously Charlie, if I knew where he was I would tell you."

"I gotta go to the station and put a notice out." He was grabbing his jacket from the peg on the wall.

"No! Charlie, please. He's just gone for a bit to sort himself out. He'll be back, I swear."

"You expect me to just sit here and let him disappear without looking for him? What kind of guardian would I be?"

"The kind he needs right now. Or rather, doesn't need."

Charlie pegged me with a stern look. "What do you mean?"

"It's his birthday tomorrow."

-  
>Chapter 1<p>

"Hey, you still there, champ?" My brother, Emmett, was waving his hand in front of my staring, but not-seeing eyes. My eyes snapped back into focus, finding a worried look on his face. "Hey, you all good?"

"Yeah, sorry. Spaced out there for a sec. Where are we going now?"

"Through Customs, then to the transfer desk."

"OK." I should really have been paying more attention; this was tough on him too, but he was awake and getting us where we needed to go.

Urgh, the flight from Melbourne to LA seemed to suck the life right out of me. I had moved off the plane through Immigration barely registering anything, and only aware enough of my surroundings to answer the immigration people's questions, although most of them Emmett answered for the both of us.

And we were only just over half way! We still had to fly to Seattle, then some other town and then another hour or so drive... the thought of the sheer distance we were from the place we loved – home, the only place we really wanted to be – made me start to panic, and we weren't done yet! Shit! My breathing started to accelerate.

Best not to think of it. Just keep walking with Em. Wherever he was, that was where I needed to be. We're all the other has left now. I tried to calm myself out of my slight panic attack over the ever-expanding distance we were from home – and still to increase – by taking Emmett's hand as we finished getting through Customs. I barely let go of it as I moved with him through the airport to the transfer desk like a zombie, handing them our paperwork to get to domestic.

When we got to the gate lounge I shook myself and decided to take charge. I grabbed the bags from my brother.

"You go to the loo and when you come back I'll go and then get us something to eat." He nodded and took off in the direction of the toilets.

On his return he threw himself into the chair, making the entire bank shake violently. Scared the crap out of the guy on a laptop who glared at Emmett when he recovered.

"Oh, sorry!" he exclaimed. _Like a bull in a china shop_, I thought. _He barely knows his own strength_.

I came back to him with a stir-fry and some boiled rice.

"Christ, their coins here are ridiculous. No fifties, but they have quarters. This is one," I said, holding up the coin. "Here is a ten," holding up the tiny silver coin, "and this is the five!" the coin was bigger than the ten. "Oh and they have one cent pieces here as well. No one and two dollar coins though, it seems. Oh yeah, word of advice, don't bother trying to add up your purchases, it changes at the register." He looked at me, confused.

"What? What do you mean it changes? You sure you just can't add, Bells? You are a bit out of it." He grinned at me.

"Up yours, sunshine, I can add! They put the tax on at the till; they don't include it on the price! I just had an argument with the lady."

"You did not," he stated, looking at me, trying to determine if I was telling the truth.

"I really think I did," I said, not looking at him and taking a bite of my stir-fry.

"Well, take it easy, tiger. Things were always going to be a bit different here."

I hummed my indifferent reply and we ate in silence. I took our boxes to the bin and I saw Em trying to get comfortable on the seats. We still had close to two hours to wait.

"You can't sit there like that, Metty, you're going to be uncomfortable enough on the plane. Here." I grabbed our bags and headed over to the section of the wall of the lounge where there were no chairs and sat with my back against the wall. I got comfortable with my legs stretched out and I put the bags to one side. "Stretch out, get comfy and here's your pillow." I tapped my thigh with my hand.

"Awesome, cheers." He was on the floor in a flash and very soon breathing evenly. I grabbed my scarf out of my bag and put it in between my head and the wall. Feeling a bit sleepy myself, I put my hand and arm over our bags before closing my eyes. Yep, great protection, but whatever.

I woke with a small start about forty minutes later and the lounge had gotten a lot busier. I alternated between dozing and people-watching until it was almost time to board. Getting a dozy Emmett on the plane was entertaining, but once again I crashed almost instantly after take-off.

I wasn't entirely sure how we managed to get to our final plane... but I was pretty sure it involved Emmett running with our bags and me following, holding onto the back of his top. We were now at the luggage carousel, getting our jumpers and jackets out of our carry-on, layering up, feeling the lower temperature in that part of the building. We stood there, wrecked beyond belief, holding hands and facing opposite directions. Em was watching for our luggage and I was on the lookout for our Uncle Charlie.

"Think Chuck will come get us in the cruiser?" Em nudged me and asked with a cheeky wink.

"I think that's the only car he's got, nuffy." I smiled tiredly at him. He was trying to keep my spirits up, but I was just so ready for this trip to be over. We had been going close to twenty-six hours and I was done.

We had our bags and started to make our way to the chairs near the exit when I saw him.

"Uncle Charlie!" I called, before he could go any further in the wrong direction. His head whipped around, his look of concern only fading a little when he took us in.

"Hey, how you guys doing? How was the flight?" He gave me a light hug and Emmett a handshake with a pat on the shoulder.

"Long as hell," Emmett replied. "I want to sleep for a week. Aeroplanes are not comfortable."

"Hmm, especially not when you're as big as you are. How tall are you now, boy?" Charlie was looking him up and down.

Emmett grinned shyly. "Six foot four."

Charlie let out a low whistle. "And you've got your fathers shoulders."

Em exhaled a breath through his nose quickly and lowered his eyes, a tight smile on his face.

Charlie's grin dropped and he grabbed my bag. "Let's get going home then, okay?"

The walk to the cruiser was silent except for our joint exclamation of "Frick!" upon getting outside. It was bloody freezing.

When Emmett saw the car he met my eyes and grinned – the cruiser. Charlie was the chief of police in his and Mum's home town of Forks. Mum had finished high school and decided to take a gap year before college and go travelling. Meeting Dad in a backpackers in far north Queensland – that was it, she never left Australia, except to visit Charlie and our grandparents when they were still alive.

Charlie had come to visit us three years ago, two years after his promotion. We decided chief of police was stuffy and too much of a mouthful, so we had dubbed him 'Top Cop Chuck'.

The drive to Charlie's was silent, that is, until Emmett started snoring. I couldn't sleep now; my body was past that. I sat and stared out the window. It was raining lightly and everything was so green. Not just green, but crazy green, like 'they must have painted it because plants and grass can't get this green' green.

We drove through the small town of Forks, businesses along the main street all seeming to support the few industries the town had. Logging seemed to be one of them... or maybe that was just the preferred decor and design? I didn't know... Mum may have told me but I was too tired to try to remember right now...

I shook Emmett's shoulders from the back seat. "We're in Forks, sleeping beauty."

By the time he properly woke up Charlie had stopped in front of a two-storey, white-painted weatherboard house. It was pretty and I could picture us coming home to this house after school. It would be okay.

We spent the afternoon setting up our rooms: me upstairs, across the landing from Charlie's and Emmett in the converted basement. It was a good set-up and I could tell Em liked his arrangement.

After dinner we hung out with Charlie in the lounge room, watching him flick through sports channels, never settling on anything. I wondered if this was his usual or if he was nervous about having us there with him. I continually kicked Emmett when his eyes would close. We weren't going to bed until at least nine-thirty pm to avoid jet-lag.

As we got up to finally say goodnight and go to bed Charlie spoke up.

"About school. I've signed the two of you up already. I hope you don't mind. Tomorrow is Friday, so you probably don't have to go, but they will be expecting you Monday."

"Cool, thanks, Charlie," Emmett said, while I nodded in agreement.

I dragged my feet upstairs, quickly brushed my teeth and was out before my head hit the pillow.

I woke suddenly, disoriented, in an unfamiliar room. Realising where I was I worked to calm my heart rate. I grabbed my phone to check the time, ten am. The house was silent; Em would still be asleep. The thought made me lonely and I didn't want to be in that room by myself anymore, so I grabbed my hoodie, chucked on my Uggs and went downstairs to the basement.

Emmett was sprawled over his entire bed. I moved over to the edge of the bed and prodded his shoulder.

"Move over, you big ape." I tried to roll him over.

"Bugger off. Go to your own bed," he replied groggily.

"But it's two stories away!" I whined.

"Well why aren't you up there in it?" He still hadn't moved from his downward starfish.

"Because then you're two stories away," I said quietly. He tilted his head and opened one eye to look at me. He groaned and rolled over to make room for me.

"Thank you!" I kicked off my Uggs and jumped in, snuggling under the covers and finding Em's calves to warm my feet.

"Frick! Get those away or I'm sending you back upstairs," he growled out. I laughed evilly and removed my ice-block feet. They were perpetually cold, even in summer, so the weather here was not going to be my friend.

"What time is it?" he asked, breathing a sigh of relief, his arm flung over his eyes.

"Ten."

"Too early."

"I know, but I woke up. We should probs get up at twelve, though. Don't want to completely stuff our body clocks."

"OK. No talking 'til then."

We settled into a comfortable snooze for the next two hours. At noon I annoyed Emmett until he got up. We had some brunch and decided to walk into town to check it out. Trip didn't last very long. Not only was the town not overly big, but the extended glances we were getting got old very quickly.

"Looks like we're big news in a small town, Rooey." My smile at his use of my favourite AFL player as my nickname turned to a grimace as the information sunk in.

"Tops," I said dryly.

We stopped at the newsagent's to get some supplies for school and then retreated back to Charlie's.

The weekend was pretty quiet; we mainly stayed around the house, only venturing out to check out the school - twenty-five minute walk, easy.

Sunday night I had a horrible thought.

"Em!" I yelped, sitting up straight in my seat on the sofa. Both he and Charlie jumped at my exclamation.

"What? What's wrong?" He looked as panicked as I felt.

"What on Earth am I going to wear to school tomorrow?"

"Are you kidding?" His look was incredulous.

"No," I said in all seriousness. I scrambled up from my sitting position. "We've always had a uniform! Crap!"

I bolted upstairs, only stumbling once in my haste, a bloody miracle in itself. Throwing open the doors to my wardrobe I began to calm a little. I had several pairs of jeans that would suffice as a uniform, some decent jumpers – mainly hoodies – but in this place they may actually serve a purpose. I supposed the t-shirts and everything I would put under them wouldn't really matter all that much, because in my three days I had yet to wear anything less than three layers.

Much relieved I went to share the good wardrobe news with the lads. They were suitably attentive to the situation, meaning Charlie shook his head and Emmett theatrically put his hand over his heart as if to calm himself and breathed "Oh! Thank God!" Smart arse.

Lying in bed that night the nerves began to take over. A new school. I had never been to a new school without a whole year-level being in the same position as me. I wondered what it would be like. The campus itself I wasn't too worried about. It was a small campus; how confusing could the school be? But what would the classes be like? What would the kids be like? Would it be like in the movies or books with the horrible class system, the political hierarchy?

Whatever it was, it would be different. Different from home.

It still didn't feel real. It sort of felt like Em and I were just visiting and we were going to school to fill in the time.

It's not like I didn't know that wasn't the case. I knew we were here for the better part of at least two years. I knew Mum and Dad were gone forever and not coming to join us, or waiting for us to return home. I knew all of this; it just didn't feel that way. I supposed that would come when we settled into a routine.

Thinking of Mum and Dad I couldn't help but get upset and the tears were instant, choking up my nose and throat. Lonely. I chucked on my 'visiting Emmett' clothes and snuck through the now quiet house down to the basement. I started my way down the dark basement stairs.

"Metty?" I called softly.

"Hey, Boo." His voice was clear; he was nowhere near sleep.

I groped my way through the dark to his bed and sat on the edge.

"This is pretty shit-box."

"I know," he stated simply. And I knew he did.

"I miss the parents," I whispered, the tears coming back in full force and making themselves noticeable in my voice. Emmett sat up in bed and hugged me to him.

"Yeah, me too." We sat in silence for a bit, hugging and me sniffling. "We'll get through it, Boo. You know the plan: Get legal, finish high school and back home for uni."

"Yep." I tried to get myself under control, sitting up a little straighter and breathing more evenly, letting the hug end.

"You want to stay here tonight? Or you good to go back?"

I seriously had the best brother in the world. He could be incredibly annoying for sixteen hours of the day, but then he pulled through with those moments.

"I'll stay for a bit, but I'll go back. I left my electric blanket on." I smiled at the last part; I couldn't live without my electric blanket.

"Good girl." He chuckled.

I kicked off my Uggs and snuggled under the covers. We talked quietly about school the next day and went over the subjects we each wanted to do. After a while we were silent. When I felt sleep coming near, I said goodnight to Em, donned my Uggs and went up to my toasty bed to fall asleep soon after.

**Definitions:  
>Only a couple this chapter:<strong>

**Walkabout: Kind of hard to describe. Indiginous Australian term, sometime in their life an aborigine goes on walkabout to discover more about themselves, family, tribe history, etc. Used colloquially as someone who disappears without notice.**

**Jumper: In Aus this is a sweater/windcheater**

**Backpackers: Youth Hostel**

**AFL: Australian Football League**

**Shit-box: Basically is a different version of shithouse - it's used interchangeably with shit as an expression.**

**Hope you enjoyed!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, I hope people are enjoying my taking Bella and Emmett for a spin - here is the next chapter, and I hope you like it!**

**Please note some spelling differences are due to Bella being Australian, using English spelling in her narrative and some spelling to try to highlight the more relaxed accents of B&Em when they are only around each other.**

**Big thanks to SavageWoman and Susayq for beta-ing and nowforruin for validation beta work :)**

**Huge thanks to nowforruin and qjmom for being available to help with posting issues also, much appreciated!**

**As we're all well aware, all recognisable characters, places, etc, etc, etc all belong to SM and no copywrite infringement intended.**

Chapter 2

Charlie woke me five minutes before my alarm was set to go off, in a panic that I would be late if I wasn't up and getting ready. Seriously, how long did he think it took? Clothes, breakfast, brush teeth, check for and cover up any pimples – I was ready for school. I didn't even have to do the whole sunscreen thing here.

Charlie offered to drive us, but we had plenty of time to walk, and it was far less conspicuous than showing up in a cop car. We got there and the car park was already full of cars of all types, kids everywhere. It was like walking through town but magnified a thousand times over. Everyone was looking at us in one form or another. Some were stealing glances, some still carrying on conversations but watching us anyhow, while others blatantly dropped whatever they were doing to stare at us.

"Whatever happened to socially acceptable behaviour?" I asked Emmett quietly to the side.

"Seems to have skipped this town." He chuckled, opening the door to the office as we both went in.

We spent the next two periods choosing the subjects we were to take for the next year, this being Emmett's last. He was to be a 'senior' and I was to be a 'junior'.

"Harvs, the forms aren't even spelt right," I whispered to Em, winking. He shushed me with a smile. "What've they got against the letter U?" I continued, regardless.

We finished up our timetables with mine consisting of lit, advanced mathematics, chemistry, French, biology AP and gym (although not before I complained that I thought I had gotten rid of that subject last year).

Emmett had gym, media, English, maths and history, having been given credits for finishing biology back home.

By the time we were finished I was late for chem. Em and I parted ways at the office, and I put my game face on. Finding the right room, I took a deep breath, walked into the class and gave my slip to the teacher. He gave me the handout the class was working through that day and the name of the text I required.

There was only one seat left so I plonked myself down next to a girl with super-cool glasses and beautiful black hair. She smiled at me and I smiled back. Easy enough.

"Angela," she whispered, holding out her hand.

"Bella," I returned, shaking her hand.

"Welcome," was all she said as she transferred her concentration back to the lecture. I did the same. When it came time to use the text, she took hers out and put it in the middle of the table so we could both use it.

"Cheers," I said quietly. I think I lucked out sitting next to this girl. Her demeanour was pleasant and polite, and she focussed on the class, unlike so many of the other girls who were whispering behind their hands and eyeing me. I tried to ignore them.

French was something I was looking forward to. I liked the language, and I liked how it made me think of various ways to use my own language. Above all, it sounded beautiful. Or it did until I heard it being butchered by horrific American accents, drawing out vowels and consonants with misplaced emphasis. I couldn't help the look of muted horror on my face as I heard various members of the class fumble their way through sentences and paragraphs of text.

I caught the eye of a boy who seemed to be enjoying my reaction. I screwed up my face slightly in mock disgust and then smiled, raising an eyebrow.

His mouth in a tight line, he raised his eyebrow, imitating me and nodded slowly, agreeing with me. My face blew out into a full-on smile. He understood. _Hmm, I wonder how his accent is_.

It was my turn to read and I looked down to the text I was sharing with a girl called, ummm... Jessica, I think. I began reading fluently, remembering where to enunciate and where to omit certain sounds that differed from the English language. At the end of the paragraph, I had earned a _trés bien_ from Madam Grey.

I looked over to my friend and saw him giving me an amused look of approval. Damn straight, he should approve. I had a great accent from being around broken English my whole life (thank you, Nonna!). Feeling bold, I winked at him, which earned me a heart-stopping smile that showed some lovely teeth and dimples in both cheeks. Good God, the boy was an angel. I was mesmerised, until Jessica started reading – and the spell was broken.

Her accent was atrocious. She was just reading the letters off the page, not caring at all about articulation and diction. Was she even trying? I looked at her, incredulous.

_Calm down, snobby_, I warned myself. _Others can see everything you do, and they're all watching you at the moment. Stupid first day. _

Anyway, it's not as if this class back in Aus was much better. Half the kids there were doing exactly what these kids were, and it was just as excruciating. It was just that I was used to the Australian accent mutilating the language. The American only seemed more offensive because this was the first I had heard of it.

It was my friend, the angel's, turn to read next. He shook a lock of blond, slightly wavy hair from his forehead and began reading. Lovely. His accent was fantastic, making the boring paragraph a lilting, rhythmical song, his lips pouting beautifully around some of the words. I was impressed, and I made sure it showed on my face.

He also earned praise from the teacher on his completion, and he looked over to me, smiling widely at my reaction and winking back at me before turning his attention back to the next reader. I diligently did the same.

As soon as the bell rang for lunch, Jessica was on.

"So how are you finding your first day here at Forks High? When did you get to Forks..." Bizarrely, she never actually waited for an answer to any of her questions as we made our way to the cafeteria. When we got close to the building, I realised she'd stopped asking questions and was looking at me expectantly. I didn't even realise that I'd stopped listening, although I'm pretty sure that Emmett wouldn't have been too surprised at it.

"Um, sorry? I didn't catch that last," I said, trying to cover.

"I asked if you wanted to sit with me and my friends at lunch?"

"Oh... I, ah, I'm supposed to be meeting up with Emmett. I suppose if he wants to, then sure."

"Cool! Now, you'll find that the Forks High hierarchy is pretty straight-forward. There's the jocks and the cheer-leaders of course. Lauren's the head cheer-leader and I'm vice; it's great. We cheer for the football team every home game..."

And this time, I deliberately stopped listening.

I started looking around for Emmett, hoping he wouldn't be too far away. _Come on Em, save me from the chirpy cheerleader_. I was having a hard time believing how clichéd this girl actually was.

She was nice enough and quite friendly, definitely liking the thought of initiating the new girl into the school, but just not my kind of person.

Finally, I heard his loud laugh approaching the building. It was accompanied by a lighter, female giggle. I was looking in his direction when I saw him round the corner, joined by a slip of a girl with crazy-cool black hair. It was short and stuck out in all directions. He saw me at once.

"Hey Burkey! How was your morning? Ready for some lunch?" The girl at his side looked perplexed at the nick-name but I was too hungry to start an explanation about the St. Kilda football club and our fave players, so I was hoping she would hold off on asking. She caught my eye and smiled, all thoughts of confusion apparently gone.

"Very ready for some food," I replied. Jessica was immediately at my elbow looking at Emmett with a big smile on her face, although it seemed like she was trying to look shy with a bit of eye-fluttering. Bizarre. She nudged my arm.

"Ah, Emmett, this is Jessica. We have French together."

"Nice to meet you, Jess." He smiled at her and she giggled. _Really?_

"Great to meet you. Bella's been telling me all about you," she beamed. My head snapped from her to look at Emmett in shock. All about him? I was pretty sure I'd only just mentioned his name thirty seconds ago.

"I'll bet she has," came his smooth reply, but his tone reeked of "bullshit" behind that smile. I smiled, too, playing the part. "B, this is Alice. We have media together. Pretty good class, actually."

"Nice to meet you."

"And you," Alice replied, bouncing forward on her toes, her kind smile still in place. "Shall we go in and get some lunch, then?"

"Sure. I said we'd sit with Alice and her friends. Is that ok with you, Burkey?"

"That's perfect! We sit at the table right next to them," Jessica had replied before I had even opened my mouth.

I smiled and winked at Emmett as he took my stuff and ordered me to get him some food. In the line, I had no idea what to get him. He was only a few tables away, and even if I couldn't find him myself, I just had to follow the line of sight of seventy percent of the students.

"Plugger!" I called. His head immediately snapped up and in my direction, followed by many others. "Pizza?"

"Tops."

I got him some pizza and a Coke while getting myself a salad. I was going to be hungry in about an hour, but everything else looked a bit gross. _Yuck_. Maybe we could just bring stuff from home.

Concentrating on not dropping the food, I made it to the table without having to look at and smile politely at a single person. Sitting down next to Emmett, I discovered Angela from chemistry was at the table. Awesome... And so was Mr. Cute Stuff from French. Just great.

"Thanks, Rooey," Emmett said as I pushed his plate towards him. He looked at mine. "Seriously? You'll be starving in an hour."

"I'll survive." I didn't want to announce to the table that I thought the food at their school was crap.

Alice began introducing me to everyone at the table and I made a concerted effort to try to remember everyone.

Angela was an easy one. Next to her was a boy called Edward, who was also very cute and had the best crop of reddish brown hair that sat in an absolute mop on his head, but suited him to a tee. He was pretty friendly, welcoming me to the town and school before resuming his conversation with Emmett. Sport – Emmett had found a friend already. Edward's cousin Rosalie, a gorgeous strawberry blonde, was next to him. She smiled lightly but didn't say a great deal through lunch. Not sure about her yet.

_Mon ange blond_ also had a name, and it turned out to be Jasper - a name I hadn't heard a lot of but immediately thought it suited him. He was also in on the sports convo with Em and I was startled to hear a drawn out accent... maybe Southern? How did an accent like _that_ produce a French accent so beautifully? Huh, I supposed the same could be said about me. My Aussie twang could be moulded to imitate French pronunciation OK, so why couldn't his?

For the first thirty minutes, Jess and her table kept stealing glances at us, but by the half-way mark of lunch, Jess seemed to have reached the end of her patience and launched herself and her table into the conversation on ours. She introduced some of the guys from her table as Mike, Taylor (or maybe Tyler? Tate? Crap), and Ben. The other girl sitting at her table was Lauren. Ah yes, the head cheerleader, good stuff.

Jasper had left the table to get a drink before Jess's invasion and so found himself without a seat. He now sat between Angela and Lauren, who was sitting alarmingly close to Edward. Surely there was enough room around the table that she didn't have to sit _that_ close? Poor girl, he was in a discussion with Emmett about cricket, of all things, and not paying a single bit of attention to her.

While I sat there, I wasn't particularly interested in participating, so I busied myself with tearing apart the label of Em's Coke bottle, ready for lunch to be over already so we could finish this day and go back to Charlie's.

"So, I know you have a flair for French. What other subjects are you taking?" I was startled out of my preoccupation by Jasper speaking softly so as not to interrupt Jessica, who was trying to wrangle the conversation at the table. Angela had given up on Jessica's monologue and was taking an interest in my answer.

"Um, well, this morning I should have had lit and... um... oh yeah, advanced maths. I went to chem and French this morning, and after lunch I'll have biol AP and the apparently ever-present gym."

"Oh. My. God. You're a complete nerd." The sentence was dripping with disdain. I looked up and was met by Lauren's supercilious look.

The words were out of my mouth before I could even think. "Well it's _school_, dipshit. What do you want me to do?"

"Easy," came the low, pacifying command/warning from Em. All conversation at the table had stopped.

I rolled my eyes and then turned back to Jasper. "So yeah." I shrugged. "That's my timetable."

"I'm also in lit first thing," he said, giving me a friendly smile, his eyes darting to Lauren once.

The remainder of lunch was fairly uneventful, and while everyone was chatty, Jasper didn't try to engage me in conversation again. I probably scared the poor bastard. _Stupid cow, goading me and making me let loose my foul temper_.

By the end of lunch, it was established that Jasper and Emmett had history together, along with Rosalie and that Edward, Mike and I had biology together.

Turns out, Edward was the only one without a lab partner, so I ended up pairing with him. He was just as easy and friendly as he was at lunch so I pretty much had a guarantee that it was going to be a decent class.

Gym was pretty much a non-event. Being my first day, I was excused from participating.

I met Em at our lockers, and we started the walk home. Walking through the car park, I saw Alice watching us. She smiled and waved when we made eye contact, and I reciprocated. Once we were outside the immediate vicinity of the school, Emmett was no longer smiling and jovial.

Must have been a tough first day for him, too. Who knew what he was thinking about... maybe a mix of the parents and how different this school is to ours? While the kids here seemed nice, apart from a certain head cheer-leader, we had our close group back home; not to mention, Em had his girlfriend, Tanya. I wasn't her biggest fan, but he liked her and he was missing her.

Having no idea how to cheer him up, I decided against trying to talk to him, got my iPhone out and started up a song on loudspeaker.

"Oooohh, ahhhhh," I started singing and dancing along as we walked.

"There are people who are pushing me on the train,

Screaming at the top of their range -

'You're gonna get what's comin'

And I don't know how to react, or if I should fight baaack!

He could have a knife,

Stab me in the gut,

Bleeding on the floor,

Shoulda kept my mouth shut!

And I don't know how to react or if I should fight baaaaaack!"

He was watching my antics, grinning and shaking his head.

"Ice cream is going to save the day!

Ice cream is going to save the day, again!"

I started dancing my way around Emmett as he walked, trying to pretend I didn't exist.

"I don't want your number. I just want to dance with my shirt off.

I don't want no other! I just want to dance, I just want to dance."

I picked up his hand and twirled myself under his arm.

"Hey! You want some ice cream?" I asked, hugging him around his waist. "I've been awesome today and I think I deserve it." He chuckled at that.

"You yelled at a girl and called her a dipshit! That's hardly being awesome." He wrapped his arms around me, effectively dragging me along with him. "Hehe, so, ice cream, eh?" He looked down at me with a raised eyebrow. I gave him my most endearing, excited smile. "OK, ratbag, let's go."

"Yay!" We turned around and headed into town.

"So how was your day? Your classes decent?"

"Yeah, that Angela girl at lunch? She's in my chemistry class. She's pretty cool. Umm, French was the usual horrendousness; just a new set of accents that make me want to cut my ears off. Except Jasper. His accent? _C'est magnifique_! My lab partner in biol is Edward of the crazy hair, so that should be fun. He's cool. And the only other class I had was gym, and I didn't do anything. How did you go?"

"Um, first class I had was media with that little Alice girl. She was heaps nice. Then I had maths. It was pretty much the usual. I had a free after lunch then history with your _magnifique_ Jasper."

"Ah!" I made a warning noise with my finger to Emmett's face. "I said his accent was _magnifique_, Harvs, not the man himself."

"You don't think he's _magnifique_?"

"Don't know him yet - he could be!" We were on the main street of town. "Do you think the diner is the best bet?"

"Sure, we'll check it out, and if it's no good, we'll just go to the supermarket and see what this country's got."

We sat at a booth in the diner. I noticed a few kids from school were there, but I didn't know any of their names.

"Wanna share a split?" I asked after scanning the desserts section of the menu.

"Yep," he replied easily. The waitress came to take our order. Once she left, Em turned back to me, a serious look on his face. "So you gunna tell me what that was at lunch?"

Giving him my best "not impressed" look, I responded, "Nothing. She was being a mole and making me feel like shit about being a nerd, so I stood up for myself. I'm not gunna be paid out by a freakin' cheerleader about my subject choice."

"It was just a bit more harsh than I'd expect from you, especially around new people."

"Don't get all paternal on me, Harvs. OK, so I flipped my shit at her. It was a tough day, and let's face it, I was probably going to spaz at her or someone like her soon enough. So now everyone has just seen my temper earlier rather than later."

"Tough? You said it was OK?"

"Yeah, the classes and all that were fine, but it wasn't a walk in the park. Doesn't look like it was for you either." He shrugged his shoulders. "You wanna talk about it?"

"Nah, it was just tough, like you said." I nodded at him, and our banana split arrived.

"Don't think you've gotten away with your temper tantrum, either." I snickered at that. "We're in a new place – behave yourself. Mum and Dad would be disappointed if you didn't try to make a good impression." He was trying to be stern. I sighed.

"I know, but sometimes I can't be arsed. We're only gunna be here two years."

"Two years is a long time in a small town, Diesel."

"Don't call me that," I retorted, knocking his spoon out of the way to get to the bit of banana and topping he was going for. "Yeah, and it'd be a bit shit to make gossip about Charlie and his wayward niece. Urgh, why couldn't we have just stayed home. You're nearly eighteen. A few more months and you could've been my guardian."

"I know, but Charlie wanted to do his best by Mum, I suppose. Anyway, no point in gettin' in a tizz. We're here now. Just keep a handle on your short fuse – no more tanties."

"Yes, Dad." He gave me his own "not impressed" look and asked for the bill. Emmett paid, and when the girl took it away she looked back at us and frowned. Ok... everyone in this country was freakin' bizarre.

We walked home, and once we got there, we prepared some dinner for the three of us. Just some steak and steamed veggies.

The nights had gotten easier. Charlie was more relaxed now that he was certain we were happy watching sports. Emmett loved all things sporting.

I was interested. I liked learning and figuring out the rules of the games, and then if I got bored, I could tune out the TV noise and do something else. Like tonight, I was painting my toenails.

"Bella, that shit stinks. Go out on the porch."

"It's cold out there, spaz. Deal."

"Well go into the bathroom, then. Seriously, it's toxic."

"Bugger off, Emmett!" I half-shouted.

Before he could raise his voice further, Charlie cut in.

"Watch your mouths, both of you. Bella, that stuff is pretty strong. You should probably do that in the bathroom with the fan on." It was a tone of voice that Mum had down pat.

I turned to look at him from my position on the floor and jumped. His expression was just like Mum's when she'd used that voice.

"Oh, um... OK..." I stumbled over the words, absolutely thrown, and then, like an idiot, I started to cry. I quickly picked up the bottle and attempted to dash up the stairs, while trying not to get any polish anywhere or die in the process. I plonked down on the edge of the bath and tried to calm myself by taking deep breaths, but they kept coming quickly, and I had pretty much started hyperventilating. The sobs got louder with my catching breath.

I was panicking and upset and in all-round shock. I gripped the bathtub for support and leaned forward. The door opened, but I was too busy struggling to breathe to look up.

"Bella? What the hell? Breathe, sweetie, calm down." Emmett was kneeling next to me in a flash, rubbing his hand up and down my back. "Come on, it's OK. Breathe in. Hold, hold, hold. Out, hold. Good. In. Hold, hold – I said hold, nutcase – fine, out, then. Hold, hold. In, hold... good."

I kept up the pattern until it started coming easier.

"What was all that about? He just told you to come in here and turn the fan on." I looked at Em and fresh tears flooded into my eyes.

"No," I tried talking between the sobs I was trying my best to control. "It wasn't. What. He said. It was the _way_. He said it. He sounded just like Mum. And then. When I looked at him. He _looked_ just like her. With the eyebrow and everything!" My face crumpled, and I just let the tears fall. I was fighting a losing battle there anyway.

"Oh, Bells." Emmett gave me an all enveloping hug, and I was somehow now in his lap as he sat on the floor. "We knew she had to get that look from somewhere. Now we know it was most likely Grandma Swan," he chuckled. "It's OK, sweetie."

"I miss her so much, Em."

"Me too, Boo." There was a long pause before Em spoke again. "Maybe it's a good thing we had to come here. This way we get to at least see glimpses of Mum, where we would have had none of either of them at home." Dad's parents had both passed years ago.

I thought about that for a bit.

"I'm not sure if that's a comfort, or if it just makes it harder?" My sentence ended with a slight question to it.

"Yeah." We sat there until I had completely calmed down.

"Sorry about the freak-out."

"No worries. You should probably say something to Charlie, though. You've probably given him a complex about disciplining you."

"That may work to my advantage..." I said, trying to give him a sly look through my puffy red eyes.

"And you're back to normal," he grinned, lifting me up and getting up off the floor. "Wash your face and come talk to him."

"I just need a couple more minutes. I'll finish my toes and be down in a sec." He nodded and left the room.

Apologising to Charlie wasn't hard, but telling him the reason I got upset was.

"Emmett reckons Grandma Swan must have had the same look for both of you to have it." I gave him a small smile.

"Huh, she sure did. I'm pretty sure Renee even used it on me when we were kids, too." He paused and sighed. "It'll get easier, Kiddo. But it will take time."

"Yeah, I suppose. Thanks, Charlie." I gave him an only slightly awkward hug and trundled off to bed, exhausted from the day.

**Definitions:**

**Harvs, Burkey, Plugger: Robert Harvey, Nathan Burke and Tony Lockett – St Kilda (AFL) past players, club legends.**

**Song – Ice Cream by Muscles**

**Mole – (also often spelt 'moll') used much the same as bitch, but not quite as offensive. Apparently, this is quite mean in NZ, but not so in Aus.**

**Diesel – Greg Williams, Carlton (AFL) past player – a player his club supporters loved and everyone else loved to hate.**

**Let me know if there's anything else in there that's unidentifiable and I'll sort you out ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

**OK, I thought there were less Australianisms in this chapter, but again my beta's tell me differently! This time it's expressions more so than words, I think. As always I have included anything they have picked up at the end of the chapter and please let me know if anything else has gone by the wayside...**

**Thanks for your reviews, it's good to hear all feedback as this is my first fic since school and I like to know if you think it's a hit or a miss.**

**Thanks to Momma Bear and HEAR for their beta work, helping out with my American as well as pointing out my slang :)**

**SM owns all recognisable stuff etc, I'm just messing with them and making some of them Australian. It's fun.**

Chapter 3

The next morning I woke with tears streaming down my face. I had been dreaming that Mum, Dad, Emmett and I were on a road trip to Alice Springs. Em and I were ribbing Dad for getting us completely lost - but the landscape was not the expanse of red sand it started off as.

It grew progressively quieter in the car as the scenery filled with more and more trees and eventually moss, ferns and thick forest. Orange-red had turned to green. There was only silence in the car now.

I finally spoke up again. "Dad, this is seriously wrong. I think you should turn around and go back the way we came."

The next thing I knew I was standing by the side of the road, watching the car turn around and head off. I didn't understand. I didn't call out to them; I just watched as the three of them drove away from me, silent tears falling onto my cheeks. I woke to find that part of my dream a reality.

With a sigh, I got out of bed. To cheer me a little I decided to wear the St. Kilda guernsey my Dad got me. I got this guernsey when I was eight, so the thing was tiny and fitted. I put a long-sleeve black tee under it and it actually looked pretty awesome. It may become a regular feature!

Even though I was pleased with how the outfit had turned out, I didn't really feel like answering too many questions today, so I hid it under my NZ hoodie – bright red with a map of NZ in white down one side. So fleecy and yum.

The walk to school was pretty quiet. I was still a bit bothered by the fact that in my dream, Emmett left me in Forks as well, so half way there I hugged to his arm lightly as we walked. He looked down at me, but I kept my gaze ahead. I didn't want to tell him about the dream; I just wanted to make sure I was close to him. He squeezed the arm I was hugging closer to his side for a quick second as we continued walking.

When we got to the car park, I let go of his arm but stayed close. We walked up to the group we had lunch with the day before, and Em and I greeted everyone as we approached. I stayed a bit on the outer of the conversation, until Alice sidled up to me.

"How was your first day, Bella?"

"Oh yeah, pretty decent. Apart from a little bitch glitch at lunch, it was pretty smooth sailing." She smiled at my mention of yesterday's lunch.

"Glad to hear it. I thought yesterday might have been a bit intense so I stayed back, but that's about as far as my patience extends. I think you and your brother are pretty cool, and you and I are going to be great friends. I can just _feel_ it."

I was surprised by the conviction in her voice, but even more surprised by the fact that I felt the same. I smiled at her as the warning bell rang.

"Time will tell, chicken." Her smile was replaced by a look of confusion. I grinned at her and began moving off with everyone.

Emmett leaned into me briefly and whispered, "Behave," winking at me before walking toward his first class and calling, "See you at lunch!" over his shoulder.

Watching him walk away felt terrible, and my feet slowed as I physically fought the urge to run after him and tell him not to go. But that was silly, it was just class, and I would see him in a couple of hours. _Jeeze, Bella, abandonment issues much?_

"Excited for your first lit class, Bella?" Jasper had hung back from the group and was smiling kindly at me. Crap, how much of my mini-panic was on my face? Did he see it all? Probably - I was useless at hiding my emotions.

"Haha, yep. I'm super pumped."

"That's the spirit."

We walked to class and I stopped by the teacher's desk to get a copy of the reading list. Turning around, I saw Jasper had saved me a seat, so I made my way over to him, studying the list as I went.

"Sweet, new blood."

"Stuff you haven't read yet?" he inquired.

"Most of them. Awesome." Good news. It would have been annoying to have repeated all the material I had covered at home. This would keep me busy. Unfortunately we were currently on something I had the misfortune to study twice before – Romeo and Juliet.

Class started and Jasper shared his copy of the text with me. Urgh, we were only at the start. I was so over this story; it was just so depressing. Romeo was just getting to the ball, still intent on Rosaline. I sighed, putting my elbow on the table and resting my chin on my fist, looking at the page, reading along with the teacher. Jasper looked up at me.

"Not a fan?" he teased in a whisper.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

"Why not? Every girl loves Romeo."

"Pfft, what about him? The fact that he switches his affections easier than his socks? Or that he's too stubborn to listen to his cousins and his friends when they finally start making sense? Or even the priest?" He was grinning at my whispered tirade.

"But love at first sight, and all-consuming love? That's gotta be a win."

"Yeah, but look where it got them." We were silent for a bit after that, but I started to worry that Jasper would think I was too much of a cynic. I didn't mind the romance of the story. "The way they fell in love is pretty spectacular, I'll give you that – Romeo's cavorting aside."

He exhaled a laugh as he looked down at the book.

"But the rest? The characters are heedless, pushy and stubborn." I glowered down at the book. "Preventable tragedies piss me off," I concluded.

I had to calm down before I got too worked up. My emotions were all over the shop since last night, and Emmett had warned me not twenty minutes ago to behave. I had no idea what Jasper thought of my last remark because I held my gaze to the book, and didn't look up again for the remainder of the class.

At the bell, as we were packing up our notes, Jasper smiled tentatively at me.

"What class do you have now?"

"A nerd one." I grinned at him and he chuckled. I checked my timetable. "AP Algebra in D4. That's in the building right near the car park, yeah?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"What've you got?"

"Photography, in the art building on the other side of the school."

"Oh fun! Better than maths. See you in French." I smiled and waved to him as we parted ways at the door of the class room.

Maths was tough. I hadn't missed many days, but they had gone over a lot of the background material in the two weeks I had missed, and they were new concepts that I hadn't done yet.

I hoped I hadn't bitten off more than I could chew. I struggled through the hour, feeling steadily more ill as the class progressed. This was beyond me. I wasn't understanding, no matter how I looked at the problems. _Well, shit_.

Chemistry shouldn't have been too difficult, I usually understood it – I knew this, but maths had me panicked. I was now convincing myself that I wasn't smart enough for the classes here, and Dad wasn't here to help me with my homework. _Shit. Shit. Shit_.

Angela and I worked silently beside each other, but I wasn't making much headway. I wanted to ask her some questions but then, I didn't want to interrupt her. Again, _shit_.

Walking to French, I had myself completely convinced I was a lost cause when it came to scientific academics, and I was going to switch out of the subjects tomorrow morning. Surely they would give me some leeway starting off at a new school? Whatever, it would sort out. I was just going to put it out of my mind and enjoy a subject I _was_ good at. I felt better already... kind of.

When I got to French, Jasper caught my attention. He had saved a seat for me. I got a funny, tickling feeling at the bottom of my rib-cage and broke out into an all-out grin.

"Hey! How were your nerd subjects?" he asked with a friendly smile.

_Way to be a buzz-kill, mate._ My stomach dropped at his question and my smile followed suit.

"Urgh. I'm definitely not as smart as I thought I was."

"I'm sure you are."

I looked at him disbelievingly from the corner of my eyes. The class started and we were starting a written project on the topic the class had been working on the past few classes.

Jess was on my other side, huffing and puffing, hating to have to remain silent for the entire class. She managed to find a way around it though, asking a million questions of the teacher – seemingly anything she could think of.

"_Elle est trés enervant._" I laughed quietly at Jasper's snark.

"_Vraiment_."

He looked up from his work briefly and winked at me. We worked silently again after that, smirking every time she asked a question.

Walking towards the cafeteria brought me back to reality. The school may have let me change my subjects but Emmett wouldn't. Just like that, my calm was gone.

Catching Emmett at the door, I followed him to the same table as yesterday. This morning I had prepared us some Vegemite and cheese sandwiches for lunch, and I was grateful for the basically indescribable salty, tart spread. Yummm. Emmett chomped into both his rounds at once. He hummed his appreciation, looking to the side at me and nodding. I returned his nod but couldn't manage the smile.

"What in the world are you eating?" Rosalie was sitting next to Emmett, sniffing with a confused expression, looking like she was trying not to be disgusted. _That_ brought a grin.

"Vegemite!" Emmett began, "Australia's answer to Nutella." I snorted at that and he elbowed me in the ribs. "Look, don't think of the smell, 'cause it actually tastes like chocolate. Nah, seriously!" he tried to confirm when Rosalie looked disbelieving. "It's amazing. And you see, we have it with cheese because that's what the French do. You know, they have after dinner platters with chocolate, nuts and cheese all the time. This is just a development of that culture in Australia. Do you wanna try some?" I couldn't believe he was going this far. He finally ripped a bit off for her to taste, and bless her, she tried it. Unsurprisingly, she spat it out.

"Em, you are such a bullshit artist." I rolled my eyes at his enjoyment of his joke.

"Oh! That is dis_gusting_! _Nothing_ like chocolate. How can you eat that?"

"It's definitely an acquired taste. You think nothing of it when you've eaten it since birth." I smiled at her, while Em just chuckled. She tried to glare at him, her façade breaking into a grin when she rolled her eyes and shook her head. Why did messing with foreigners and Vegemite never get old?

Today Jess and Lauren's table joined us from the beginning. The chatter around the table was lively, but I stayed out of it. I pulled my diary out of my bag and put it on my lap, studying my timetable and trying to think my way out of the mess I had created for myself.

Maybe I could go into more arty subjects? I had always loved the idea, but I wasn't anything close to creative. I was analytical and thought in patterns. I knew where my strengths were and that was maths and science – just not at this level. But I was ahead of the other subjects they offered, and I wasn't about to sit there idle. Why was the degree of difficulty of the advanced maths _that_ much higher?

Frustrated, I sighed and scrubbed my palm across my forehead. Emmett looked at me and then back to the table.

"Do you guys seriously sit in here for the full hour _every day_?" Em asked the table in general. There were variations of ascent and he shook his head.

"Not happening. C'mon, Rooey." He grabbed my hand and his bag. "Let's go have a kick."

"Serious? Did you bring the Sherrin?" I asked as we left the building, ignoring the questions and protests coming from the table.

"You can always join if you want!" he bellowed back at them.

We walked past some picnic tables and Emmett chucked his bag on one, producing a yellow AFL footy from its contents. He looked at me and smiled.

"I'm never without it."

With that he ran off a good distance, stopped and dropped the ball to take off his jumper. With its removal, his St Kilda guernsey was revealed and I squealed and clapped my hands excitedly.

"No way, Harvs! Check it out!" I took off my hoodie, revealing my own guernsey, flinging it onto the table before running to a clear space of grass.

"Haha! Awesome!" He dropped the ball onto his foot. It made a satisfying thud as it connected and sailed in my direction, straight into my awaiting hands. I returned the kick with precision. We just kicked it back and forth lazily, without any commentary or intensity. It was a first in this country and we both enjoyed it.

I loved playing sport – growing up with Em it was hard not to. I was pretty decent at it, had no problem with hand-eye coordination. Off the field, however, I was a completely different story. I was usually distracted and never paying enough attention in general to stay completely clear of tables, doorways, hallway walls... any manner of stationary objects. Mum despaired for me, whereas Dad and Em thought it was hilarious. I think not.

We kept at it until the warning bell sounded. When I turned to get my stuff from the picnic table, I was surprised to see everyone getting up and getting ready to set off for class. They had been watching us and I hadn't even noticed. I picked up my hoodie and put it back on.

"That was pretty cool. You guys should teach us your football and we can teach you ours," Edward said, to me and Emmett as he approached the table.

"Sounds good to me. I've always wanted to know how to throw properly!" Emmett and Edward continued talking as we made our way to the buildings, but I was distracted by the hostile glare Lauren was giving me. _What the..? What was her problem?_

I rolled my eyes at her and made my way to class. That was a decent, controlled response; surely Emmett wouldn't have a problem with that?

Settling into bio, Edward started up about football again.

"So did you and Emmett play your football back home?"

"Aussie Rules? Oh, nah, not me. I only played against other schools on sports days. No competition, though."

"What do you mean, sports days?"

"Um, it's where a couple of year levels all have the day off in the schools around the area and they play various sports against each other. So in the winter you'll have netball, hockey, footy etc and in the summer months you'll have tennis, cricket and the like."

"Really? Everyone has the day off to play sports?"

"Yep, pretty much. It's like a competition for the area, if you win that you go to State finals and then you can play National. But our school only put teams together for the day, the ones that made it to National had teams that were together for serious competition."

The class that day was a question sheet on the topic we had been studying, so we chatted freely while we completed our work.

"Well, the boys were all impressed by your skill. Jaz and I thought for sure you played in a girls' league. Is there such a thing?"

"Yeah, there is a girls' comp, but it's not all that common. I like playing footy, but I bruise like a peach and end up coming out of the games an absolute mess, so I need to stick to more 'non-contact' sports. We weren't even doing all that much this arvo, just passing the ball. Markers up is much more fun and shows more skill."

"OK, you've lost me... Arvo and marka's what?"

"Really? Arvo's just afternoon! I didn't even realise that was slang! And it's mark_er_s up," I emphasised the 'r' for him. "When you catch the ball from a kick, untouched by another player, it's called a mark and it's a clean possession." I held my hands out in front of my face, pretending to mark the ball.

"Clean possession?" He threw me a quirked eyebrow to show his confusion.

"Means no one can take the ball off you. You can take a kick or do whatever you like from that spot, but if you take too long, or as soon as you move from that spot, it's on again. Anyway, markers up is two groups of people kicking like Em and I were, but everyone is competing for the ball. It's more scrambled and full on and fun. People drop the ball and chase, tackle and all the rest. It's great."

"You guys will have to teach us so we can get to the level high enough to play markers up with you," he said excitedly.

"Yeah, that'd be awesome!"

Gym was soccer: not my strongest sport, but I managed. Was very glad when the end of the day rolled in, 'cause I was exhausted. I'd had more ups and down than a frickin' roller coaster today, and I was about ready to crash.

I met Emmett at the edge of the car park and we began to walk home, neither of us talking. About halfway there Emmett swung his hand up, and let it fall on the top of my head, gripping it and turning it toward him. I flinched at the unexpected contact and glared at him.

"So, Boo, what's got your knickers in a knot today?"

I glared at him further. "Nuthin'. My knickers are fine."

"I'll bet. That's why you were sweatin' bullets at lunch and muttering to your timetable like it was going to answer back. C'mon, what's the problem?"

I looked at him, debating what to say. We walked in silence for a little while longer. I seriously tried and absolutely failed to find a way out of it, so I decided to give up and step in front of the firing squad. I took a deep breath.

"I think I'm going to change out of maths." Silence. "And chem." I kept my eyes ahead, the greenery likely to be more forgiving than my brother.

"Interesting," was his final reply.

Surprised, my eyes flicked to his face, then away again.

"Whaddaya reckon you'll take up instead?"

"Not sure yet. Art? Like graphics? Um, maybe a business subject? Or government? Might be good to understand politics a little better." I was clutching at straws, but tried to make the last statement sound confident. Unfortunately, Emmett could smell bullshit a mile away and he smiled.

"Yeah, because you were so political at home."

"It all has to start somewhere," I countered.

"Hm." He grunted. "Fair enough." And he left it at that.

We walked into the house and I was up in my room in a flash. There was no way he was just going to leave the conversation there. I didn't know what his game was, and I wasn't going to stick around all afternoon to find out. I quickly changed into my running gear and headed back down. Em was in the kitchen, surprise, surprise.

"I'm off for a run. Back soon."

"Just watch yourself," came the customary caution.

"Yep!"

I did a little light stretching on the porch before setting off down the road, using my iPhone music library as motivation – or rather, Dad's iPhone music library. I ran for over an hour around the residential streets of Forks, letting the rhythm of my feet and breathing make all the craziness of the day recede into the back of my head.

I got back to find Emmett still in the kitchen – this time preparing food rather than eating it.

"Smells good, what's on?"

"Spag bol. It's not far off either, so grab a shower and we should be about ready when you're done."

If there was one thing Em could cook as well as Nonna, it was her spag bol, yum!

After a delicious dinner, I retreated to my room to try to do some of the maths homework and see if it made any more sense than it had this morning. I hadn't made much headway before Emmett was in my room, plonking himself down on my bed.

"It's called knocking, wanker." I kept my eyes on my book. He chose to ignore me. As usual.

"Whatcha workin' on?"

"Maths."

"I thought you were giving it up."

"Last ditch effort, but I think it's pretty much a lost cause here." I sighed, throwing my pen down onto my notes and sitting back to look at him.

"You've never been a lost cause at maths, nerdface." I scowled at the horrible nickname that he had liked far too much at home.

"That was there. This is here. It's harder here... and I'm missing one tutor." I felt my chest tighten slightly just thinking about him. Emmett's face, which was etched with concentration when he listened to me, relaxed and he leaned back against the wall.

"Dad never tutored you. He just helped untangle you when you circled too much."

"That's what tutoring is, numbnuts. When I confused myself he would work with me until I got it right."

"Yeah, he'd work with you, but he wouldn't actually _teach_ you anything, Bella. I remember." I scoffed at him, about to refute but he cut me off. "You get yourself worked up into such a lather you can barely see straight, let alone concentrate. What are you working on now?"

"Whatever, Em. It doesn't matter. I've decided to go straight to that Cope woman in the morning."

"Alright, fine, but just tell me what you're working on anyway. I wanna know."

"Why?" I yelled, exasperated at his pestering. "I'm giving it up tomorrow anyway! There's no point."

"I don't care! Now what are you fuckin' workin' on?" He was yelling right back at me.

I raised a combative eyebrow at him. "Complex conjugates of imaginary numbers."

"Right. What does that mean?"

"Ask Mr. Varner."

"I'm askin' you."

"God, you're an annoying prick," I muttered under my breath. "Fine. An imaginary number is the square root of negative one..." and I spent the next five minutes explaining as simply as I could, something that was as complex as crap. I finished explaining the general topic and Em continued to look at me.

"OK... and?"

"And we have to work out..." I did my best to try to explain the exercises that we were expected to complete. It felt gargantuan.

"Sounds like you get it to me. What's the problem?"

"I don't though!" I wailed. "The question's asking me to get the answer using a certain process and it doesn't make any sense. You can't just do that with the numbers, the rules don't allow it..." I paused for a few disjointed seconds as the pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place, and the direction the equation _should_ have been taking formed in my head. "Oh!" I started scribbling before I lost it. I worked frantically for a few minutes and finished, again throwing my pen onto the paper.

"Got it?" he asked with a stupid, massive grin on his face. I rifled through the book to the answers section to check.

"Yes," I breathed. I'd been working on the same problem for the last hour and twenty minutes. No joke.

Emmett chuckled triumphantly. "I knew it! Ah," he sighed. "I'm so glad that worked. You're so easy to read. Dad's done that to you so many times, did you never notice? He never explained shit, he'd just let you do it all."

"Huh." I sat there thinking back. "But he'd stop me if I was going in the wrong direction. He knew when I was going wrong. I won't know that, you won't and I'm not sure how much of a maths nerd Chuck is."

"Then take it to Varner the next day. You can't just give it up, Boo, you're too good. The parents would be disappointed."

"Not to mention pissed at you if you were to let me." I gave him a glare, but it had no fire in it.

"That too. You're not giving up maths," he stated, "or chem."

"You're a shit." I tried to imitate his authoritative tone but the smile that fought through seconds later betrayed me. "Thanks," I said quietly, my eyes returning to my books.

"Yep," he replied easily. Getting noisily to his feet, he left the room. Just before he closed the door he poked his head back in. "Love ya guts, nerdface."

"Yours too, fatface." I poked my tongue out at him and he left.

Sneaky bastard, I knew he wouldn't let me get away with it. Prick needs to take up chess; that was a pretty classy piece of strategy.

I got through the majority of the problems that were set for homework, but still had a few that I needed help on from Varner the next day.

I woke the next morning the same way I had the day before, silent tears soaking my cheeks. Judging by the state of my pillow, they'd been going for a while.

I again attached myself to Emmett's arm as we walked to school, only relinquishing it when we got near the grounds. Heading off to class, his parting whisper was "Behave. Concentrate. Breathe." I laughed and walked off with Jasper.

"Ready for the tragic couple?" Jasper asked teasingly, most likely recalling my dummy spit from yesterday.

"Yarp! Let's get this party started!" I slapped my hands together in mock enthusiasm.

Chuckling, we walked into the class and opened the text, waiting to begin.

Maths was better. Hard as hell, but I took Emmett's advice from the morning, using last night's "tutoring" session to encourage me. I was making progress, not a great deal 'cause it was hard stuff, but I wasn't going to get it all in one go. Definitely better.

Chem was less stressful when I didn't enter the class half off my head with stress to begin with. I walked to French, proud that I had made it through my toughest classes without panicking too bad. I got there before Jasper this time, saving him a seat. I hoped that was cool with him, but he'd started it, so it should be.

I smiled when he came in and sat down next to me. "Hey."

"Hey. Nerd subjects better today?"

"Marginally. No hyperventilation today."

"Haha, glad to hear it."

"How was photography?"

"Can't complain. No hyperventilation, so that's gotta count as a win, right?"

"Absolutely." My grin was huge, stretching my cheeks wide. The class began and we were back to working silently.

When we got to the caf at lunch, I took my usual seat next to Em and threw his Vegemite and cheese sandwiches at him. He looked at me expectantly, his eyebrows asking me how class was.

"Yeah," I said uninterestedly.

"Yeah?" He wanted confirmation.

I nodded. I would stay in the classes. He nodded at me purposefully and turned to start unwrapping his sangas.

"That was pretty impressive guys," Alice remarked, looking between Emmett and myself as we sat there chewing our lunch.

"What?" We both looked at her, bemused.

"You had a complete conversation with one word and seemed to understand each other."

"Ha." I smiled. "Some people should probably take notes." I eyed Jess, who was again talking at a rate of knots. Alice laughed and nodded, agreeing with me.

The weather was still nice, so Emmett and I taught the boys the basics of putting boot to ball with some sort of accuracy. They were pretty adept, which was a great sign for lunches in the future.

After they were going okay by themselves, I left Jasper and Tyler kicking to Mike, Edward and Emmett to go sit with the girls. They were just chatting about random things, Jess and Alice doing their best to keep me in the loop. Lauren was fairly tight-lipped, but I wasn't about to think that had anything to do with me this time. She didn't like me, but she didn't seem to like Alice or Rosalie either, so I was fine with her silence. Rosalie would contribute every now and then but was often looking away from the table. I followed her gaze and found that for the majority of the time it was in Em's direction. Her face showed nothing, but the fact that she was looking in his direction, more than anywhere else, gave her away: she liked the look of my brother. Well, so far I liked her better than Tanya, so I wished her all the best.

Biol was the usual barrage of questions about Aussie Rules from Edward before our lecture on a new topic began. After more soccer, I soon found myself treading the now familiar path back to Chuck's place.

"Good day," I got in before Em could ask.

"Good, knew it'd be fine." He smiled at me.

"Whatevs, Harvs." I got his arm again and we continued home.

**Definitions:**

**Australian –**

**Guernsey: Team jersey. Always sleeveless, with a small v-neck.**

**Rooey: Mentioned in Chapter 1, Nick Reiwoldt, the current captain of the St Kilda AFL team.**

**Have a kick: Simply means to kick the footy back and forth, just like throwing a baseball.**

**Sherrin: Main brand of AFL football.**

**Spag Bol: Horrible slang for spaghetti Bolognese.**

**Dummy spit: Throw a tantrum. Comes from when a baby spits their dummy (pacifier) out to have a cry.**

**Sangas: Sandwiches.**

**Rate of Knots: An expression used to indicate impressive, knots being the speed measurement in all things boating.**

**French – Forgive me if tenses or anything are wrong here, I am incredibly rusty.**

**_Elle est trés enervant:_ She is very annoying.**

**_Vraiment:_ Indeed**

**So that was Chapter 3, I hope you liked it!**

**Curious**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello again! **

**Thanks to those reading and letting me know you are liking it :)**

**Thanks to my beta's this chapter: SavageWoman and Momma Bear **

**As always, Australianisms at the end...**

**SM owns all that she did before (and possibly more by now). I'd like to think I have a bit of ownership over these guys and their hissy fits.**

Chapter 4

The next two mornings brought no difference in the way I woke. I was so over it already; it was making me anxious and irritable first thing - not a great way to start the day. It was the end of the week, and I was very glad; the week had been huge, and I just wanted to sleep for the entire weekend. Just one more day to get through.

I was starting to settle into my classes by now. Lit was steadily progressing through _Romeo and Juliet_, and I tried to keep my temper every time they did something that contributed to their demise. Jasper continued to be my saviour in that class. He would frequently make me laugh when I got worked up, or even just tell me to lighten up by knocking my knee with his and rolling his eyes at me when he caught me scowling. He was great at turning my frown upside down, and I was very grateful. That text made me more moody than maths.

Maths itself was, in equal parts, driving me insane and giving me a great sense of accomplishment. Chem and French were my staples and felt like the oxygen of my week.

Biol was fun only because Edward was a great lab partner. Mr. Banner had already learnt to leave us during class because no matter how much we talked, we always got the work done. We did occasionally get told to "respect the others' right to concentrate," though. Oops.

And gym was still there, being a complete waste of a subject. I could so put that time to better use.

Being the arse end of summer, the weather continued to be fairly decent with only a few showers that could be ignored and played through at lunch times. Friday during lunch we were, again, out on the grass. The boys were making great progress with their kicking and coordination with the oval ball.

Five minutes before the warning bell was supposed to go off, we heard the familiar tones of Drapht "J! R! Jimmy Recard! Raise your glass for the King of the bar, it's J! R! Jimmy Recard! Women swingin' their ar-" Emmett scrambled with his phone and shoved it to his ear - I understood his haste, Charlie wouldn't need to ring us at school. The call must have been from home.

"JONESY!" Emmett yelled into the phone. I was off in a flash. "Whaddaya doin' mate?" While he was just speaking normally, it sounded really exaggerated; I hadn't heard him this excited in ages. "Fuckin' course it is! Bella - Jonesy's eighteenth is on." He hugged me tightly to his side when I reached him.

"So how's it goin'? Yeah? Out in the paddock? Out the back or close to the house? Oh, no shit?" He leant down to me a bit. "They set up the camping on one of the back paddocks near the river - got a couple of fires going in some 44's."

"Sounds awesome. He's done a great job." Jonesy and I were only beginning the planning of this party when the accident had happened.

"Yeah man, she's sad to miss out on it, too." His arm hugged me harder. "Yeah, nah, it's goin' alright here. It's only fuckin' autumn and we're freezin' our tits off, ay. Well, B is, anyway."

"Yeah great, shithead, like Jonesy needs to be thinkin' about my tits." I rolled my eyes at him as he laughed, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Oh man, Chuck is pretty cool. He's grown this mo'. He looks like a full on hard arse, but Bells just has to say the word 'knickers,' and he goes white as a sheet." He boomed with laughter.

"Stop talkin' shit," I chided through my smile, giving him a light shove in the ribs.

We waved to everyone as they moved off to class. We were staying where we were. This was our first call from our friends at home, and it was more important than class. After a few more minutes of banter between the boys, interspersed with my interruptions, Emmett's body language changed.

"Oh really? She's there? Um, yeah sure, put her on, then." He stood up straighter and his arm loosened around me, but he didn't move it. "Hey Tan, how's things? That's good. I didn't think you were going to go to Jonesy's. Well, you told me you didn't want to go without me. Oh, yeah, I suppose that's fair enough."

Only hearing one half of the conversation was annoying, but things didn't sound like they were headed in a good direction. The fact that Em let me go, and took a step away from me confirmed it.

"I never said that, Tanya. You're the one who said you didn't want to go - I'm just going by what you told me. I know it's tough, baby, believe me." With that, Emmett waved me off, indicating I should go to class.

_Yeah, I don't think so._ I'd seen their arguments first hand and they affected him more than he liked to let on. She could be mean. I honestly didn't understand the draw; she was high maintenance and a condescending bi-atch. Maybe she was more relaxed when she and Em were on their own, but in all the years I had known her and on the various sporting teams we had been on, I had never seen it.

He listened to her go on for a while, and noticing I hadn't moved off, he gave me a more exaggerated wave and mouthed "go." I shook my head and mouthed "no" back. His expression grew dark.

"Tanya," he growled. "What's goin' on?" Pause. "This is insane," he huffed quietly, his eyes still blazing. He stalked toward me and grabbed my upper arm forcefully, pushing me in front of him for a few steps toward the school buildings. I angrily twisted my arm out of his grip and rounded on him. He put his hand over the microphone of the mobile. "Bella, go to class," he whispered through gritted teeth.

I locked eyes with him, crossed one foot in front of the other and sank into a sitting position, resting an elbow on each knee. I was not moving. He gave me a greasy and stalked off in the other direction. I continued to watch him for a moment, but then cast my gaze downward and just picked at the grass and waited. I didn't really want to hear his conversation. I wasn't hanging around to be nosy, but I was going to be here for him when he was done whether he actually wanted me to or not.

Although I wasn't actively listening, I could still hear some things: the occasional exasperated sentence, "Sweetie, I had no _choice,_" and "And what about Bella?"

I didn't like that question.

Not just because I knew what her response would most likely be "What about 'er?" I didn't like the thought that Em would be staying here until I was legal as well while he still had ties back home. It was easier for me to be here because, while I missed my friends back home like nothing else, I didn't have a partner waiting for my return. I wasn't one half of a ridiculously long-distance relationship.

After a lot of pacing, arguing and placating, Em finally finished his phone conversation. He stopped and sighed, dropping his head back and closing his eyes. His head rolled in my direction, and he opened his eyes to look at me. His face set hard, he walked back over to me.

"Why haven't you gone to class?"

I looked up at him. "My arse is wet, and I'm too embarrassed to get up."

He snorted a laugh. "Dickhead." He held his hand out to me and I took it. With a quick yank, I was pulled clean off my bum and onto my feet with a jump.

"So what was all that about?" He looked at me, debating whether to answer.

"Urgh, she's still pissed at me for leaving."

"Em, are you serious? What the fuck does she think you could have done about it?"

"Nothing. Something. I don't know... and I don't think she does either. She's just lonely and misses me."

"Well that's all fine, but it's not really fair that she's taking it all out on you, though."

"Oh well. You should get to class now, mate." He gave me a little shove, and I screwed up my face at him.

"There's only twenty minutes of biol left and after that it's just gym. Can't we just wag?"

"Jesus." He breathed out in a chuckle. "Our first week here and we're already wagging class on a Friday arvo. Alright. Get ya shit and let's go."

We went to our lockers and grabbed everything we'd need for the weekend and started the walk home.

"So what did you want to do? The town doesn't even have a bloody cinema. Anything you wanted to look at in town? Don't know that I can be stuffed following you around the shops though."

I rolled my eyes at his crap attempt at humour for the fact that I wasn't particularly fond of aimless shopping, and the lack of shops the town provided for that anyway.

"We probs shouldn't walk around town anyway. Chuck might be out on the beat."

"I don't think anyone's out on the beat in this town, Rooey," he smiled. "C'mon, if we're wagging, we have to do something with it; otherwise I should be in history. What did ya wanna do?"

The poor bastard, he just looked wrecked as he unlocked the door and let us into the house. I grinned at him, knowing something that would cheer him up a bit.

"You sit down there, Plugger. I'm makin' you a Milo and a snack, and we'll watch a DVD."

"You're a champ." He flopped onto the couch and turned the telly on. The house filled with the sound of commentators from who knows what sport.

I put two mugs of milk into the microwave and got the green tin of malty-chocolaty yumness out of the cupboard as well as some corn kernels and some sugar.

"Whatcha makin', Rooey?"

"Christ! How does someone built like a brick shithouse move like a friggin' ghost?" I whipped around and hid the ingredients behind my back.

"Sorry," he said with a grin that told me he was anything but. The microwave went off.

"Yeah, right. Can you make these?" I gestured to the microwave with the milk. "Then bugger off. I'm being nice and making you a surprise." I shoved the ingredients up the back of my jumper and moved around the kitchen, getting the various utensils I would need. Not entirely easy. Emmett chuckled at my antics while making the Milo, the quick stirring of the teaspoon in the mug a welcoming and comforting noise.

"There you go," he said, pushing the Milo toward me.

"Ta." When he continued to wait, grinning all the while, I gave him a look that said "Well?"

"I'm leaving, I'm leaving!" He wrapped his hands around the mug and left the room, blowing on the steaming liquid.

I made sure he was engrossed in what I determined was baseball before I started. Baseball was something I hadn't really gotten into. It was too slow - even slower than NFL, though how anything was slower than that game, I have no idea. I smiled at my hypocrisy as I poured the sugar into a pot and put it over a low heat; I watched five-day test matches of cricket from first to last ball, so I couldn't really talk.

I quickly put a bowl of corn kernels in the microwave and put the cover on. The popping would give the game away, but I hoped he was too caught up in the sport to hear it. Within minutes, I was stirring the air-popped popcorn though the fresh caramel. _I am the best sister in the world, hands down._

I left the bowl on the back doorstep to cool while I went to the lounge to the TV cabinet where Em and I had added our DVD's to Charlie's small library and got out the one I was looking for. I flicked it at Em as I moved back to the kitchen. He jolted in surprise when it hit him in the chest and looked down to where it landed.

"Haha! Sick!" He got up to load it into the player, and I retrieved the bowl, breaking up the now set caramelised popcorn as I walked back. I jumped on the opposite side of the couch as Em sat back down.

"Aaaaawww, frickin' A." Em's eyes were devouring the bowl in anticipation.

We settled ourselves with our backs to the arms of the couch, feet meeting in the middle. Em flicked the blanket from the back of the couch over us and put the bowl of popcorn on our feet just as the multitude of whistles signalled the beginning of Hot Fuzz. We spent the next two hours laughing our arses off and pre-empting our favourite lines.

The movie ended, and Em and I sat in silence for a bit, picking at the dregs of the popcorn.

"Sounded like the party was goin' off," I started. Em nodded with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"Sorry you had to miss it, Rooey."

I shrugged. "Ah well. Not a huge deal in the scheme of things. So... was it really a surprise that Tanya was there?" Our home town was only a little bigger than this town. Most of the kids of the same age knew each other even if they went to different schools, and if there was a decent party going on, everyone went. Not to blow my own trumpet, but the one Jonesy and I were having was going to be a cracker, and all our friends were excited.

"Nah, it's not that she shouldn't have gone or anything. But I talked to her earlier in the week, and she was in tears telling me she couldn't go to the party without me 'cause she was gunna miss me too much. Then she's there and bangin' on about how her life can't stop just 'cause I'm not there, and if she meant anything to me at all, I wouldn't have just up and left her right before the most important exams in our lives and blah, blah, blah." He was getting pretty riled up by now. "Frickin' Irina's been in her ear. That bitch was always trying to get Tan to go out on the weekends I was away for footy. Anyway, she was pretty smashed. She wouldn't have said half those things if she was sober."

I only just managed to swallow my disbelieving snort and keep my face neutral. "Em... do you really think trying to keep this thing going over long-distance is such a great idea?"

"Oh, don't you start," he spat angrily, picking up the bowl and making to move off the couch. I grabbed his knee to stop him.

"I'm not starting anything... It's just that it's _so_ far away and for such a long time! I don't want to make you feel worse, but look at what one phone call did to you. You've got two years of that ahead of you."

"It's just tough now because it's the start and we're not used to it yet. It's just a stressful time."

"What, you think it's going to get better? Get easier? Shit Em, there's always gunna be a 'stressful' time. Soon enough it'll be exams, and you're gunna get it for not being there to support her. Or it'll be Christmas and summer hols, and you'll cop it 'cause she's bored without you, or she misses you not being at all the going away parties - or the start of uni, because 'you don't understand what she's going through with uni and college.'" I put on my best Tanya voice for the last part of my rant.

"Thanks for telling me about the life I'm fuckin' missing out on." He threw the blanket off us and stormed away from the couch.

"Don't be such a fuckin' drama queen. I'm not sayin' all this to be a bitch. I'm just trying to make you see that this isn't gunna be easy for you - either of you, really. And if she's already behaving like this, then it's just gunna turn to shit, and it's not fuckin' worth it!" I was following him down to the basement.

"You've had how many boyfriends, Bella? That's right, none." I scoffed at him. "You don't know what the fuck ya talkin' 'bout. You just want me to get rid of her because you don't like her. Ya never have."

"Well can ya blame me? She just chewed you out for fuckin' half an hour for something that wasn't your fault!"

"She was drunk."

"Poor excuse! If a boy treated me like that, you'd be after his blood. Why does _she_ get away with it? She should have more tact. Fuck. You didn't just up and move on a frickin' whim, Emmett. They're dead, and she's bitching to you about missing a _fucking party_. Tell 'er to get some fuckin' perspective."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's all this shouting and cussing about?" Em and I were startled out of our argument by Charlie appearing at the top of the stairs. We immediately backed off and looked at our feet.

"Nothing," Emmett said.

"Mmmhmm," Charlie replied. "Is this the same 'nothing' that had the two of you skipping class this afternoon?" We glanced at each other in surprise - how the hell did he know that? "You do realise that if either of you are not in class, they contact your guardian, right?"

"Um, no, we didn't know that," Em supplied while I remained quiet. We quite visibly braced ourselves for the coming shellacking.

"Well, you do now. So are you gonna tell me why you two are skipping classes your first week of school here?"

"Ah, we got a call from our friends from and home and it was, um... taxing," I finally spoke up.

"Why were you answering your phone at school?"

"It was at lunch."

"And did you end the call when class started again?"

"No," Emmett picked up the answer this time. "We were too excited about speaking to them. They were all together, it was -" I glared at Em quickly and he changed tack, "just good to hear from them. Then the call kinda went to shit, and we were a bit bummed, so we thought we might as well call it a day."

Charlie sighed. He looked at the two of us, arms crossed with one hand up to his face where he smoothed out his moustache and rubbed him chin, contemplating his next words. Seems bringing us into line really made Chuck uneasy.

"Look. I know it's tough, guys, but you can't just decide for yourselves when to 'call it a day' at school. You have a responsibility; you have to be there. If it's really important that you have to leave, you have to let me know first. I thought you were in school today. When I think you're somewhere and find out you're not? That's pretty scary."

We apologised and ended up agreeing to Charlie's terms. _Phew. _That wasn't nearly as bad as I would have expected; the parents would have flipped their shit. Oh well, extenuating circumstances, I guess.

That night Emmett and I barely spoke to one another, the good time in front of the DVD this afternoon forgotten. I went to bed in a mood.

More tears, what's new? I sat up, cross-legged in bed and buried my head in my hands on my lap, entirely frustrated. I debated whether to stay in bed a little longer, but it was no use. Waking up like this always made me anxious to see Emmett, and even though I was still mad at him for being a blind dingbat, I still wanted to see him.

With Saturday morning came the luxury of staying in pj's, so on with my "visiting Emmett" clothes, even though I wasn't sure I would actually be visiting him. I opened my bedroom door and jumped when I saw Em's back moving away from my door and down the landing.

"Whaddaya doin'?" I asked slowly, suspicion thick in my voice and all over my face. He turned his head, but didn't stop.

"What, I can't go to the loo without your permission?" He walked straight into the bathroom and slammed the door. _Stroppy bugger._ I stopped. My bedroom was further along the landing from the stairs than the bathroom was. He had to have come close to my door on purpose for me to find him where I did, so my question before was entirely valid. I huffed and rolled my eyes at the bathroom door. At least I now knew where he was. I headed down to the kitchen to get me some breakfast.

I put enough oats in the pot for the three of us, not sure if Charlie would like porridge, but just in case. I started stirring as the oats began to boil and added milk intermittently, along with some chopped apple, cinnamon and nutmeg.

"Wow, Bells, that smells great. Got enough for me?" Charlie was fully dressed but looked a little sleepy still as he went about making himself his coffee. I wondered if Em's little hissy fit had woken Chuck, but seeing as he was in uniform, I guessed he wasn't far off getting up anyway.

"For sure." I smiled at him as he settled at the table with the paper.

I dished up as per the three bears, putting the medium serve in front of Charlie.

"Thanks, Bells."

"No probs," I lightly replied.

Em shuffled into the kitchen, and I turned, got his mammoth bowl and put it into his hands on my way back to the table with my bowl.

"Ta," he said quietly.

I nodded as I sat down. We sat there for the first quiet meal since we arrived. The only interaction was Chuck glancing up from his paper at us occasionally while we threw intermittent greasies across the table at each other. Sleep had done nothing to improve our moods.

Finally, Chuck made a move from the table.

"So I have to go into the station today. Will the house still be standing this afternoon?" he asked, looking between the two of us.

"Prob'ly," came Emmett's surly reply. I snorted; I couldn't help it.

"Right." With that, he left us.

I finished up my breakfast and put my bowl in the sink.

"You're on dishes," I told Em as I left the kitchen. It was only fair since I had cooked. I heard no argument as I went up the stairs. Good. Now that I was, again, holed up in my room, I had no idea what I wanted to do. It was bucketing down outside, so indoor entertainment was my only hope.

I sat down with one of the books from my lit list and read for a solid hour. My arse was going a bit numb and I was getting fidgety, so I decided to find other entertainment around the house. Nah, I was actually curious as to what Em was up to. He wasn't downstairs, and the door to the basement was closed. _Right, well I'm not going down there._ I went back to my room and did some more homework. Close to lunch, I had finished chem and French, and had gotten a fair way through my maths. I decided to give it a rest before my brain completely fried.

I collected my washing and Chuck's hamper, and headed downstairs. Dumping those in the laundry, I went and thumped Emmett's door.

"Bring your washing up," I called when I opened the door briefly.

As I was sorting the clothes, Em dumped his washing just inside the door. Once I had the first load going, I went to the kitchen to find Em with the sandwich press going.

"Roasty toasty?"

"Cheers," I said, sitting down.

We were silent as he went about fixing the Vegemite and cheese sandwiches to toast. This was the way it always was between us when we were snooty at each other. Mum could never decide if she loved it for the peace and quiet, or if she hated it because of the tension we both gave off. I invariably detested it.

The shitty thing was, he was pissed at me when I was standing up for him. _Argh, whatever._

I cleared the lunch dishes and joined Emmett in the lounge to play Halo on the X-Box. Occasionally one of us would get up to get food or drink, but there was still very minimal talking. Around three in the arvo, I cracked the shits.

"Fuckin' rain!" I got up from the couch and did a funny stretch to try to ease the weird, kind of itchy feeling I had in my legs from not being able to go outside and do what I wanted. I was bloody stir crazy.

I stomped out to the kitchen, exasperated with the rain, Emmett and the whole day in general. I opened the pantry purely for want of anything better to do. While my eyes roamed over the shelves, I was struck by an idea. I started rummaging.

"What on Earth are you doing?" Em said to my back.

"Searching for the 'essential ingredient!'" I replied.

"What?"

"Today on Australian MasterChef," I began in my best imitation of Matt Preston, the compere's voice. "Your challenge is to cook a two course meal for Mr. Charles Swan, Forks' Chief of Police. You have free reign over menu selection, but you must use the 'essential ingredient'..." I paused as my eyes continued to search the kitchen. _Gold!_ "Oranges!" Em was snickering during my spiel. "You have approximately two hours before the Chief arrives home. Good luck!"

Em's face mimicked the tension of the contestants while he stood in front of the pantry; legs spread wide, arms crossed. He hammed it up by pushing a finger to the side of his over-pursed lips, smooshing them to the side.

"OK, I think we have a chance of winning this thing if I do the main and you do the dessert," he stated, not taking his eyes off the ingredients.

"Sweet."

"Literally."

"Ha." I started to get things together for a cake, moving around the still-stationary Emmett. He finally went to the freezer and started digging around, chucking stuff onto the bench with a clunk. I sidled up to him, bouncing on my toes and hands clasped behind my back, now imitating another of the presenters, George Calombaris.

"Emmett, what have you got on the menu for the Chief?"

"Uh," he was perfect at the harried movements they all had, and I bit the side of my cheek to stay in character myself. "Well, I hear he's a bit of a fish nut, so I'm going to cook up some fish in foil parcels on the stove top in an orange and mint marinade. I would prefer it on the barbie, but the weather isn't really cooperating."

"Right, sounds good. You confident you can get the tricky fish dish right? Have you made this before?"

"Never, but I'll give it a crack. I'm pretty confident, yeah."

"And what kind of fish are you working with today?"

"God only knows. I just hope to fuck it's not carp."

I burst into laughter and went back to my cake. When I was putting the batter into the tin, Em came up beside me.

"And you're doing the dessert portion, Isabella?" Matt Preston had made his way back into the kitchen.

"Yes, an orange and poppy seed syrup cake," I said, making my movements stilted and running my forearm over my forehead.

"Sounds delicious. What's the inspiration for this dish?"

"Apart from oranges? Um, it's the only recipe I know, and it's the Chief's sisters' favourite - I believe it was the only thing she could really cook." I grinned up at Em, and he grinned back.

We still didn't talk much, but we were happier, the distraction having caused the fight to pretty much blow over. The front door opened while Em and I were cleaning the mess we had made during the challenge.

"OK... looks like you two kissed and made up." We smirked at him as he looked in the oven door and to the stove-top where the three neat foil parcels were giving off the most delicious smells. "So what's this about?"

"MasterChef Challenge," we both stated together.

"We're the Blue Team. The challenge is to cook a two course meal for the Forks Chief of Police, based around oranges," Emmett explained while he checked the fish.

"Who's on the other team?" Chuck asked, a little confused.

"That's up to your imagination, Chuck!"

"You kids are nuts." He shook his head as he settled at the table.

Dinner was a huge success. The fish with green beans and homemade chips were just gorgeous, and the cake was straight out of the oven, so I had served it with vanilla ice-cream. With a bit of cajoling, we finally got Chuck to play along with us, and he declared the Blue Team the resounding winner. We cheered and high-fived while Emmett yelled "Suck on that!" out the kitchen door to the imaginary opposing team. He was a gracious winner, alright.

Chuck rolled his eyes at our antics.

"OK. So, you kids know how to drive, right?" Unexpected subject change, but he definitely got our attention.

"Yeah," we both answered, warily. Although you could only get your learner's permit at sixteen and had to drive with a fully licensed driver present until you got your probationary license when you were eighteen in Victoria, both Emmett and I had been driving the paddock basher out on the farm since we were thirteen.

"Well, the weather's only going to get worse from here on in, so I was thinkin' tomorrow we'd go look for a car for you guys."

Em and I looked at each other with twin expressions of surprised glee. "Siiiiiick!"

**Chapter definitions:**

**Emmett's ringtone - Jimmy Recard, Drapht, Skip-Hop artist.**

**44's: Old 44-gallon drums, usually cut in half, either length or width-ways and used to hold fires at parties. Gallons are not a measurement often used in Aust. but the term for these drums has stuck.**

**Yeah, nah: Very common Australian expression, most don't even know they've said it. As far as I can tell, the 'yeah' is a confirmation that the speaker has heard what the other has said and understood, and the 'nah' is where you're either slightly disagreeing with what they're said or just the start of your next sentence. You don't actually have to be disagreeing with the person to use it.**

**Mo: Moustache**

**Mobile: Cell Phone**

**Greasy: A glare that usually holds no real heat, sometimes a glare with a sneer.**

**Biol: Not sure why, but at home it was always biol, never bio.**

**Wag: Skip/ditch/skyve off classes.**

**Milo: Chocolate malt milk flavouring, about as traditional as Vegemite.**

**Built Like a Brick Shithouse: Pretty self-explanatory, basically means huge/solid.**

**Ta: Thankyou**

**Five-Day Test Matches: A single game of cricket that is played over 5 days. Both teams have 2 innings to bat, with each inning only ending if the other team gets all 10 batsmen out or the batting team decide they have made enough runs (declare). At the end of the 5 days it can still end up being a draw. VERY boring to many people (I am not one of them).**

**Bangin' On: Ranting**

**Summer Hols: For Em his summer holidays will start at the end of Nov, when his exams end and will last until the end of Feb or start of March, where he will start the orientation week of University. For Bella there is only about 6 weeks of holidays until the start of term at the end of January.**

**College: At home this refers to the residential colleges at the university campuses.**

**Shellacking: actually a form of varnish, but colloquially means getting the shit ripped through you. Yelled at, big time.**

**Stroppy: Moody**

**Crack the Shits: More moody form of losing your temper.**

**Carp: In Aust. the European Carp is an introduced species and stirs up all the mud in the creeks and irrigation channels, making a general pest of itself, and is too muddy to taste anywhere near decent.**

**Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!**


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks a million to my beta Momma Bear: good-luck vibes heading your way for meeting Hugh, I cannot think of a better person to be your tutor on all things Australiana.

**Also big thanks to DreaC for beta-ing this chapter and as ever nowforruin for validation beta work...**

**Just a reminder that misspelling in speech is there to portray accents :)**

**SM owns her characters and I... have taken too long with this chapter already, so here goes.**

**Chapter 5**

Sunday morning over breakfast, we poured over the classifieds section of the paper, looking at the cars for sale. With a short-list in our possession and wet-weather gear on, we headed out into the rain to go take a squiz.

We diligently went through the list, but found nothing that was all that great. Some of them really should have been on their way to the scrap-heap and it wasn't long before Chuck would give his diplomatic "I think this is a no," before we moved on to the next.

After the fifth and last car turned out to be yet another shit-box, we got back into the cruiser much less energetic than when the search began.

"Next week can we maybe look in Port Angeles or some other nearby towns?" Em asked Chuck.

"Sure thing, but we have one more option today. Mark, one of the guys at the station, said something about his brother needing to sell his old car. You kids want to take a look before we call it a day?" With no reason not to, we headed off to Mark's brother, Steve's, place. Either Chuck already knew Steve or he knew where everyone lived, because he drove straight there without getting any form of directions. Seriously, it could've been either case.

We walked up to the front porch, and Emmett and I stood off to the side to get out of the rain while Chuck rang the doorbell.

"Charlie! Haven't seen you in a while. How are you? Not here on business, I hope..." A man with brown hair and the apparent north-western uniform of jeans and flannel stepped out onto the porch to join us.

"Hey, Steve. I'm good. No, no business today. Steve, this is my nephew, Emmett, and my niece, Bella." We all made the appropriate introductory gestures as Chuck went on. "We're looking to get a car for them, and Mark told me you might be looking to sell your old car."

"Well sure, Charlie. Come on in and take a look. It's a wretch having to sell it; the missus has been at me to do it for years. I've held onto it for as long as possible, but with the baby coming we need the money." He chatted to Charlie as he led us around the side to a disconnected garage. When he lifted the garage door, I couldn't see what had made Emmett stop in his tracks. All I could see was burnt orange – so seventies. I walked around the side and then my thoughts caught up.

"Is that a Monaro?" I asked. I didn't know a great deal about cars, but there were standard classics.

"Monaros are Holdens, Bella." Emmett answered without taking his eyes off the car.

"So? Oh." I belatedly realised that Holden was Australian.

"You're not far off though. It's a Pontiac GTO."

"Yes she is," Steve sighed.

I looked at him, then Emmett, then Charlie. They were all wearing very similar expressions of... I don't really know what. I mean, the car was super-awesome, there is no doubt about that. It was a two-door, with a long hood and pretty much no boot, the car sloping down with the same angle of the rear windscreen, not levelling out again like a normal sedan. The thing was two-tone; the body was burnt orange, and from the windows up it was mission brown. The inside was brown leather, very well taken care of, but you could see the years on it. So yeah, I got that it was a cool car, but I just did not understand the relationship guys had with cars. I chuckled.

"Looks like we have a winner," I drawled. It was enough to bring them all out of the momentary stupor and they got down to business, discussing the running of the car, registration, blah, blah, blah. Next thing you know, Chuck's got his cheque-book out and ripping one out for Steve.

"No!" Emmett and I pounced on him.

"We'll discuss it later. Steve, did you want to drive it over now and I'll drive you home again?"

Once we were in the car it started.

"Chuck, thanks for getting the car paid for today. I'll go to the bank tomorrow and sort you out." Emmett nodded, his eyebrows puckered in sincerity.

"No need, Em. I've got it covered." Charlie just gave one nod during his sentence and kept his eyes forward.

"Uh, no, Chuck. Bells and I will be using the car, we can pay for it. We've got cash for that sort of thing. Thanks for the offer, but that's too big of a gift."

"Well I don't see it that way. We're family and all I'm doing here is providing for my family. It's not a gift; it's a necessity in this part of the world." He paused for a second, finding the right words before continuing, "Having been without family close by for such a time, I really appreciate being able to have you two here with me. Of course the circumstances that brought you here sure are terrible, but I am honestly thankful to have you."

Em looked behind Chuck's seat to me and we exchanged a look of almost shock. That was the most Chuck had ever said at one time and the first he's really spoken about how he felt about having us. He always assured us he wanted us here with him, but this really drove the point home. There was really no arguing with him about the car now without looking like complete brats.

"'M glad you think having our demented heads around is a decent silver lining, Chuck," I said softly from the back of the car, smiling at him through the rear-view mirror. Em snorted and rolled his eyes at me while Chuck laughed briefly.

"Sure is."

We pulled into the driveway, and Chuck, Em and Steve worked out the final details of the car. Once they were done Chuck drove Steve home while Em and I got lunch ready.

Later in the afternoon, I came downstairs after having read some more of my book to find Emmett. I didn't even bother looking in his room, but went straight to the porch – and there he was, just sitting on the bench seat under the lounge window, staring at the car.

"Aw mah gawd, Macca, it's a fully sik Mon-ah-ro..." I said in my best impersonation of Pauly from Pizza. Yeah, I say Pauly, but it could be almost any one of the wog boys that were Em's best mates at school. He turned around and smirked at me.

"Fully. Seriously, aw mah gawd, I cannot wait to droive this thing."

I inhaled a massive gasp. "You sounded just like Toula! Please call the car Toula, please, please!" I laughed. Emmett looked up at me with a grin, his eyebrow cocked in amusement.

"Frickin' awesome," he drawled. "She really is a Toula. Not sayin' she's fat, but she sure is phat. Ya know, p-h." He nodded like a skeeze, with a crooked grin.

"Yuck, ya feral. Don't talk about Toula that way."

Chuck came out of the house at that point. "Right guys, I'm heading over to La Push to watch the game with Billy. You guys want to come? His son Jake will probably be around."

Emmett was clearly torn between wanting to watch the game with Chuck and his mate, and becoming better acquainted with the newly-named Toula.

"It's not like you can drive her anywhere, Harvs. Let's go with Chuck."

On the way out to the reservation – a completely new concept that I had only learnt about that week – I was again struck by the beauty of the bush here. Well, I don't suppose they did call it "bush" here; what was it, forest? Woods? Whatever, it was incredibly lush and green and very pretty, different to anything I had seen in Australia. Even when you went far up North, the lush green was tropical, and this certainly was not that. We came into, and went straight through, a small township and pulled up in front of a small red house with a shed to one side. The two buildings were completely surrounded by woods. _What a pretty place!_

Meeting Chuck's friend was actually pretty cool. Billy was an odd guy to try to figure out; I think at one time he would have been a very imposing figure. He was currently in a wheelchair, for what reason I felt rude in asking, but he was definitely tall, with broad shoulders, and he had this look about him when he spoke that just drew you in and commanded your attention. At first I had found him kind of intimidating, but there was no resisting his smile; he used his whole face to pull it off.

Since Jacob was still out with his friends, Billy tried to keep Em and I occupied through the pre-match commentary; asking us how we were settling in, how we liked school, did we have our licences here yet. Emmett got excited about that one and started up about his new car. Just as he was getting into his stride the door burst open and in strode a cute as boy, all bright smile and long, black hair.

"Hey, Charlie!" he sang. "How are ya? Oh hey!" he greeted Em and I when he noticed us a second later.

"Hey there, Jake, I'm good. I'd like you to meet my nephew and niece, Emmett and Bella McCarty. Guys, this is Jacob."

"Hi," we all said at once.

"Emmett here's been telling us about his new car," Billy said, eyeing his son.

"Really? What did you get?" Jacob's eyes were alight with interest. God, boys. I didn't get it – a car is a car, it gets you from A to B. Yeah, some are cooler than others, but they're still just transportation devices. I watched them as they chatted excitedly about the make, model, its advantages and short-comings.

"I'm building my own car, a Volkswagen Rabbit. Come and check it out." With that we were up and out of the house, leaving the two old fellas inside. Jacob led us to the shed beside the house, and while it was loud with the rain beating on the roof, it felt warm and inviting. It was just so interesting.

While Jacob and Em were talking cars around a half-built machine with the guts half out of it, I slowly walked around the edges of the shed, taking in all of the bits and pieces around the place. Some were really grimy, others in various states of cleanliness and all of differing age. I didn't know much about what I was looking at, but the welcoming smell of grease, turpentine and petrol brought a smile to my face. It kind of reminded me of Pa's shed.

Turns out Jacob was just over a year younger than me and was rebuilding the car in the shed by himself. I hadn't realised he was being literal before, but he really was building the car, replacing the worn out parts with those he found in junk yards and the like.

He ran inside for a sec to grab some cans of soft drink, and the three of us sat around getting to know each other. There was a little talk of home, but we kept it mainly Forks-related and listened to what Jake had to say about the area. Apart from sport, there were only a few things to do around town without having to go to Port Angeles. Seems it was pretty much make your own fun around here, but that was fine with Em and I as we had to do that when we were stuck out on the farm every other weekend through childhood.

By the time we left, we had promised to be back within the next couple of days to introduce Jacob to Toula, although he was yet to know the classy lady's name. He was a top kid, and I could see us spending a fair bit of time out here.

* * *

><p><p>

Yep, same deal. Wet pillow and hair sticking to my damp cheeks. Again. I wiped the strands from my face, resigned to the discomfort waking like this brought. It would pass soon enough, surely. If not? Well, at least it was consistent.

I was bloody freezing this morning, so I put on a few tight layers and shrugged a huge cable knit jumper over the top. The thing went down to my knees and looked dickie with jeans, so I put on some opaques and then changed my mind, going from the full stockings to only knee-highs instead – I needed to be able to get used to the cold a bit and have somewhere to go when it got even colder – and pulled on my new black stirrup pants. I chuckled involuntarily at the thought of Mum's reaction when I showed them to her.

"_Oh my God, Bella!" she managed to get through her hysterics. I was less than impressed; I thought they were awesome and was proud of my purchase. "I haven't seen these since the early 90's! Please tell me they're not back! Are they high-waisted?"_

_Why yes, yes they were._

I went downstairs, still stuck in my memories of trying to convince Mum that my new pants were entirely cool and in no way daggy.

I was at the stove, stirring the porridge when I heard, "Holy shit!" I startled at the exclamation and the bang, turning to see Charlie looking at me wide-eyed, the bang having come from him trying to steady himself on the open door as it fell back to the wall with his weight.

Before I could ask him if he was ok, he was stuttering out, "I thought you were Renee for a second there. That sweater, your hair... Sorry." He shook his head, trying to shake the ghostly image, I bet.

"No it's okay, Uncle Charlie." The fright made me more formal. "Sorry I freaked you out. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Just gives you a bit of a shake-up, you know?"

"For sure," I paused, not knowing what to say. "You want some porridge?" I'd only put in enough for Em and I in my daze, but I'd just have some toast, or a banana or something.

"No, thanks. I, uh, I'll just grab something at the station. You have a good day, Bella." With that he turned heel, grabbed his jacket and holster off the peg and made like a shepherd. He was so flustered he probably never heard my timid "You too."

"Hey! It's old Nanna Mac! Love the cardi, granny." Emmett shoved into the kitchen, dropping heavily into his seat at the table.

"Great. You think I look like a nanna, Chuck thinks I'm Mum... I'm this freakin' close to having an identity disorder from this morning. Never wearing this again," I grumbled as I went to the table, steaming bowls in hand.

"What about Chuck and Mum?"

"Um, I totally freaked Chuck out this morning. He came into the kitchen and nearly had a heart attack, thinking I was Mum. Something about the clothes and the hair," I told him, uncomfortable at the thought of being a ghost for Charlie. He looked at me while we were sitting, pursing his lips and tilting his head to the side.

"Mum would never wear Uggs," he declared and started on his breakfast. Properly comforted, I started on mine with a smile and a shake of my head.

I'd changed my Uggs for some Cons and put a belt around the jumper before we headed off. As we walked down the driveway Em threw a longing look at the car. I leaned on his back, shoving him forward.

"This arvo, Harvs. Only a few more hours. Come on."

We walked to school with me again attached to his arm. Upon our arrival to the parking lot I was immediately accosted by a little Alice.

"You will not do that to me again," she stated with her mouth in an angry pout, her face all up close to mine.

"Wow, back up, Chicken. Breathe." She rolled back down onto her heel and crossed her arms, scowling at me. "What did I do?"

"You just left! Without giving me your number, or discussing the weekend, or anything! That is not to happen again."

"You could've just called the house." I didn't understand why she was so mad; not having my mobile number wasn't the end of the world.

"Chief Swan isn't listed."

"Oh? Okay. Well, surely you know where he lives. Why not just pop over?" She looked uncomfortable. "What's the matter, you got some sort of vampire syndrome? You have to be invited?"

"Well it would be nice to be invited first," she mumbled. Her pout was phenomenal and entirely endearing.

"Nawwwww." I pouted right along with her, while pulling her into a hug. She allowed herself to be hugged but didn't participate or reciprocate. I jolted my body side to side while still holding her. "Ugh, ugh. Well, that hurt much less than I thought it would. Almost effortless. Almost."

"What are you talking about? What was effortless?"

"Being wrapped around your little finger." I gave her a smug "I know what you're up to" smile when she looked up at me, trying to look confused and innocent. Her eyebrows slowly lowered and her lips curved into a grin.

"It took a whole week. It wasn't effortless." I shoved her away and we both broke into laughter. "Seriously, though. Digits, McCarty. Now."

"Bourkey! We telling everyone our big news?" I looked over at Em, pretending to be confused.

"We havin' a baby?" He levelled a look at me.

"Retard. We bought a car yesterday!" he announced proudly. He was rewarded by a cheer from the lads and was immediately immersed in questions by a couple of them, and to my surprise, by Rosalie. Seemed she was making sure he checked out some issue that that kind of car sometimes had. I was even more surprised by that, and then mentally slapped my stereotyping head.

Jasper and I settled into lit not ten minutes later.

"So why didn't you guys drive this morning?"

"Ha. Em would've if he could've. We're getting our licences this arvo."

"How was your weekend, then? Pretty exciting with the car?"

"Oh yeah, it had its moments. It was pretty all over the shop." His brow creased for a moment, trying to figure out what I'd said, but it cleared a moment later.

"Bit up and down, huh?" Thankfully the class started without me having to refuse to elaborate further. I liked Jasper, but he didn't need to know the details about Em and I. I really wasn't that close to anyone yet. I should've been more vague about my weekend so he wasn't curious, but I never managed to think far enough ahead for that sort of stuff. That's why Em was usually the spokesperson for our weekend activities when it came to informing the parents. He always knew exactly what to say and what to omit without ever lying.

The class was one of solid reading, with a few people playing parts. I was mercifully spared, and listening to Jasper play the voice of reason and love in Benvolio was definitely a good way to spend my morning.

After the mindfuck that was maths, I gratefully slipped into my seat beside Angela, in chem. It was the first I had seen of her for the day as she wasn't in the parking lot this morning.

"G'day Ange! How was ya weekend?" Her smile was huge and she giggled at me.

"That's the first time anyone's ever said that to me."

"What? Surely someone's asked you how your weekend was before."

"No, no. I've never heard anyone say 'g'day' except on TV."

"Oh." I blushed. Didn't even realise I'd used it. Her smile widened.

"My weekend was great, thanks. The party Friday night was great."

"There was a party Friday? No wonder Alice was shirty with me this mornin'." I chuckled. "So what made this party so 'great'? You seem extra smiley this morning."

The first half of the class was a lecture and the second half we completed a worksheet. Through lots of pretending to concentrate and a good deal of blushing, Angela managed to get out that she and Ben had kissed at this party. She'd liked him for a while, but they'd never really spoken before last week, and when our tables merged, they had finally started to talk. It was only a small kiss after he had driven her home, but it was huge progress for them.

I got to French and flopped into my seat beside Jasper with a sigh.

"Tough morning?"

"Just Mondayitis, I think." During the class we chatted about his weekend and more about the party. He was in silent stitches when trying to tell me about Lauren's multiple attempts on Edward, how uncomfortable he was and how oblivious and tenacious she was.

"Not that I ever would, but why doesn't he just go for it?"

His laugh earned him a reprimanding glare from Madam Grey. He sobered up quickly and turned to my bemused face; I didn't think I had said anything that funny.

"He's just Lauren's flavour of the month, but the poor bastard manages to get the title every second month." He chuckled softly again. "She'll go off onto some other conquest in the hope of making him jealous and then starts on him again. It's hilarious."

"You're a great mate, laughing at his misfortune," I joked.

"He'd do the same for me. Thing is, he'd save himself a whole lotta heartache if he just grew some balls."

"Whaddaya mean?"

"He's got his sights set on a little lady, but he too much of a p- coward to do anything about it." I rolled my eyes as he finished his sentence. He'd just all-out said "balls" to me, like "pussy" was that much worse. My eye-roll morphed into an incredulous grin as I looked at him.

"Jasper Whitlock! Look at you, ya little gossip!"

He chuckled merrily. "You see how you go after a couple of weeks here. It's hard to keep it in check, especially this past year; it's such a soap-opera."

We made our way to lunch and I sat on the corner of the table, adjacent to Alice, who was at the end, and across from Rosalie.

"God that stuff really is awful." Alice was screwing her nose up and eyeing my sandwich.

"Keep disrespecting the Vegemite and our friendship will suffer," I retorted with a supercilious look.

She snorted a quiet laugh. "You really are a nerd." She smiled.

I gave her a playful glare. "Yes. I believe that was already established. Meanwhile, how has your day been?"

"It's a Monday. I just want it to be over." I looked at Alice. From what I had seen of my new friend over the week, she seemed a fairly bright-spirited person. That sort of sentiment wasn't usual for her. But I had no idea what to do about it, so I changed topics, hoping for a distraction.

"So, how was the party Friday?"

Rosalie gave a quiet chuckle. "Out of the pan and into the fire," she said, looking at Alice, who was scowling up a storm.

"Oh really?" That piqued my interest. "What's that look for, Alice? Stop frowning, you'll get wrinkles." I pushed my finger in between her eyebrows. If she wanted to be my friend, she had to learn early that I was annoying. Growing up with Emmett will make you that way. Alice just swatted my hand away and continued on. Rosalie continued to laugh.

"Someone was tryin' ta put the moves on her man," she teased, watching Alice for her reaction. And no wonder.

"Rose!" She cut off Rosalie's words as soon as she heard them, checking the table to see if anyone else heard. No one was paying attention; the boys were listening to Emmett and Jess was talking to Angela and trying to engage Lauren, who was too busy paying attention to a seemingly oblivious Edward, I was beginning to think maybe his inattention wasn't so unintentional.

"What's this about a man, Chook?" She threw me a greasy when she heard the nickname, then sighed and brought her eyes back to her lunch, looking despondent.

"There is no man. And that was made abundantly clear on Friday night."

"That's bull."

"Oh whatever, Rose. You were there, you saw it."

"I certainly did. I know what I saw. So do you. You're just being a pussy." _Wow, tell us what you really think, Rosalie._

"I'm so lost right now." I looked between the two of them. I had been following the conversation like a tennis match. It was just as entertaining as one; I just wish I knew what they were talking about. Alice looked towards Rosalie, but she just raised her eyebrows, not giving Alice an out by taking up the explanation.

"I uh, have a... preference for one of the guys that was at the party and... over the course of the night it was made pretty clear that he prefers the company of someone else." I had a fair inkling of where this was headed, but I was miffed that, for all her talk of friendship, she couldn't just come out and tell me.

"Preference? _A_ guy? Someone else? C'arn Alice, was my body distortion this morning worth nothing?"

"No! It's just the rejection is so humiliating!" she whined in a whisper.

Rosalie scoffed, "There was no rejection. You are such a drama queen. Put your big girl panties on and tell the story."

"Yeah, Alice." I smiled at Rosalie. "Take a teaspoon of cement."

"What?" She looked at me, confused.

"Harden the fuck up." I levelled at her.

"Oh my God. Fine. I like Edward, okay? There. And the whole party he and Lauren were all over each other."

"Correction: she was all over him."

"He wasn't saying no."

"That's because he, also, is a pussy."

"Rose!" Alice admonished. She turned to me. "So now you know."

"Interesting. I've already heard this story." I smiled.

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "My God. You're as bad as Jasper."

"Funny you should say that-" The mass exodus from the table cut me off. On our way out of the cafeteria to the grass, Alice caught me up.

"What? What did he say? What did you hear?"

I shrugged and she latched herself onto my arm, pleading my name. I was warring with myself because Jasper was right; it was hard to keep yourself from getting caught up in the soap-opera.

"Let's just say that Rosalie has the better handle on it," I said, dumping my stuff and running out to Edward, Jasper and Ben, who were kicking to Em, Tyler and Mike.

Seeing the perfect opportunity, I yelled for Alice to come join us. Every time I got the ball, I taught her how to kick. Edward was never far away and after a bit he started doing the same thing. Jasper caught my eye and winked at me, and I couldn't help but laugh and shrug. I looked over to the table and caught Rosalie watching with a smirk. Lauren looked plain shitty.

Sitting in biol, I just couldn't help myself.

"Have a good weekend, Edward?"

"Yeah, it was pretty good. How about you, did you enjoy car shopping?"

"Haha, that's almost exactly what Jasper asked me. Yeah, nah, car shopping was OK. The car is pretty damn cool - I'm not quite as geared up about it as Em is, but." I paused briefly, contemplating my next topic. What the hell. "All I've heard about today is this party. Must've been something special. Seems Em and I missed out." If any of Jasper, Rosalie or Alice had been here they would have gagged at my pathetic segue, but Edward had no idea of any of the conversations I'd had that day, so he had no reason to think me nosy.

"Meh, it was okay. Nothin' that great. Just the first party of the school year, so that gets people excited. Ben's thinking of having one, probably next Friday. Think you guys'll make it?"

"Probs." I nodded. There was only the merest hint of an eye-roll from him when he mentioned the party being "not that great". No smiles, stammers, blushes – nothing. Alice had nothing to worry about.

Once Emmett and I were safely out of the car park and a couple of blocks away from the school, I started to chuckle. Emmett looked over at me, smiling untrustingly.

"What?"

"These kids are tops."

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Oh Harvs, we missed one cracker of a party Friday night."

"I know, ay!"

**Definitions:**

**Squiz: Look**

**'Pizza': Autralian TV show about a whole lot of stereotypical characters that work at a pizza shop in Sydney. Hilarious.**

**Cute as: The 'as' is used for emphasis, e.g. sweet as; it's cold as out there**

**Dickie: Means something that's not right – in this case the clothing items don't match. Could also be referring to an injury when paired with a body part, i.e. a dickie knee ;)**

**Daggy: Uncool, unfashionable. Dag is an affectionate insult, kind of like nerd, but less about smarts.**

**C'arn: Come on.**

**Hope you enjoyed!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello again!**

**Well, this chapter was a bit of a toughie for me... It deals with a fair bit and was kind of hard to write. Please take a minute to let me know what you think.**

**Mega huge thanks to Momma Bear for being a rock – a gem, in fact! You put the sparkle back in my day.**

**Thanks to Marlena for the grammatical work and to Nowforruin, for her validation work.**

**SM owns the characters, I make them Ocker and politically incorrect.**

****Useful tip for reading Australian accent – when an R follows a consonant, it is well pronounced, when it follows a vowel, it becomes an 'ah' sound. There are always exceptions to the rule, but that generally works.**

Chapter 6

That arvo we breezed through our licence tests. Even so, Chuck made us both do a few laps through town to double-check for himself. During Em's Chuck-approved test, he threw a glance over his shoulder, a cheeky gleam in his eye.

"Hey Macca, how 'bout we go chuck some laps in our fully sik Mon-ah-ro?"

"Sik-leh," I replied, before cacking myself laughing.

"I'm not even going to ask," was all that came from Chuck. By the end of the drive, we must have both passed muster because all we got was a, "curfew is ten-thirty, sharp," before he walked inside and left us with the car. There was no hesitation; in an instant we were both back in the car, getting comfy. We checked out the town, but it was so small we were actually chuckin' laps before too long. We picked up a celebratory pizza and headed home.

We had a riot introducing everyone to Toula, Tuesday morning. Whenever either of us were asked the reason for her name all we could reply was, "'Cause she's fully sik!" to which the other would agree, "leh!" with a nod of their head. They tried to ask if that meant she was varying degrees of awesome or cool and while I kind of agreed with most of their assessments, their attempts to find comparisons were just missing something in the attitude. There was just a certain something in the way Wogs speak with determination and zeal that creates its own spin on a language. It is at times equally ridiculous, annoying and endearing.

The rest of the day was a much more subdued affair. The excitement of the party had worn off and the day was almost lacklustre in comparison, although that could have had more to do with me. After the brilliant day I had the day before, I was starting to sink; I could feel it. I really liked how happy and chatty I'd felt yesterday; it was a first here, really, and I didn't want to lose that feeling. I was trying really hard to get off the roller-coaster I was on, but sometimes there's nothing you can do but suck it up and ride it out.

I participated in the day with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. While I did passably well, the bolstering smiles I received throughout the day from Jasper and the squeezes Alice gave of my hand at the end of lunch and again at the end of the day, told me I was not entirely succeeding.

"C'arn champ, in ya get," Em called from the car. He climbed in and leaned over to unlock my door.

"Still feels retarded getting in this side." I smiled. Em laughed and his grin grew one hundred-fold when he turned the ignition and the car roared to life.

"Listen ta that." He beamed.

"You can't help _but_ listen to it." I smirked at him.

"Yarp. So frickin' cool." We waited in the traffic of the car park for a bit before he spoke up again. "How was ya day, chooken?"

"Right as rain, sunshine. Hows 'bout yourself?"

"What a fizza. If it wasn't for Toula, today would've been boring as batshit."

"I've never understood that. Have you ever wondered why batshit is apparently so boring?"

"Never. Even thinking about it's boring. Whaddaya reckon we go introduce Toula to Jake and check out the bush as we go - scope some good camping spots?"

"Sounds decent. He's expecting us, yeah?"

"Yep."

We drove out to La Push, cruising the radio stations, but finding nothing up to the par of Triple J. After twenty torturous minutes of complaint rock and Top 40 mindless bilge, we had determined that replacing the old radio was top priority.

We spent a couple of hours driving around with Jake, listening to the car go through its paces and checking out the reservation and surrounding areas. Jake and Em chatted happily in the front while I sprawled along the back. It was hilarious seeing those two big guys fold themselves up and get into the tiny car, but they loved it. I listened to the boys while taking in the lush scenery that was so different from home. A pang of homesickness spiked when I noticed how long we had been driving without seeing a single gum or wattle. I tried to will myself out of it and concentrate on the beauty alone, not a comparison of what I was used to. It was tough and I didn't really succeed, marring what was otherwise a good afternoon.

We came home to Chuck heating up canned soup and making toast.

"Sorry Chuck!"Em turned back to me as he entered the kitchen, stretching his mouth into an "eep!"

"We kinda got carried away, getting Jake and Toula acquainted."

"I'm sure you did," Chuck said with a laugh to Emmett. "Don't worry about dinner. I don't actually expect you kids to cook. Sorry my dinner is no MasterChef fine dining."

"Ah well, we can't all be the blue team." Em gave Chuck a patronising pat on the back as he was ladling the soup into bowls. He just looked at me with a single raised eyebrow and shook his head.

I did my homework in front of the TV that night, staying near the boys. I liked our nights together and took comfort in the familiarity they had already taken. I got through my chem homework and started on maths, but I was getting restless and distracted; the thought of the next day sapping me of the comfort I held earlier. The TV program held no interest, so I decided to pack it in and get an early night. Emmett surprised me by bringing me in for a hug when I went to kiss him on the cheek goodnight.

"Sweet dreams, BellaBoo," he whispered sweetly in my ear, then tickled my sides, making me squeal and giggle.

"Emmett, let your sister go."

He reluctantly let me go, then gave my retreating bum an almighty slap.

"Argh!"I spun around and pushed him sideways on the couch before he had a chance to brace himself. The bugger just cackled, so I started to climb on top of his hip so I could get a good spot to tickle him, or at least get a decent pinch in, but before I got very far Charlie was at it again.

"Emmett! Bella! Hands to yourselves!" He shook his head, looking like he couldn't decide if he was irritated or entertained. "Bella, off to bed. You should probably think about going too, Emmett." He gave Em a pointed look that made his words more than a polite suggestion.

"Told." I pointed at Em before making a dash toward the stairs, hearing him scramble behind me.

"Whoa up, Emmett. You can wait five minutes and use the bathroom when Bella's in bed." Smart man, that Chuck.

I washed my face and brushed my teeth quickly, wanting the oblivion of sleep. While the tousle with Em had brought my mood up a little, as soon as the lights were out, I was drowning in my own head again. Before I could really get myself worked up, I heard footsteps as Em left the bathroom and a light slap on my closed door.

"Just sleep. Catch ya tomorrow." He was right. I concentrated on nothing but my breathing and fell asleep soon after.

Holy mac. Waking up that morning was the worst. The tears were no longer the usual silent trickles down my cheeks. I was actually sobbing dry, silent sobs with horrible shaking and rasping inhalation. I sat up quickly, but the melancholy of the dream didn't fade with increasing consciousness as it usually did; this time it grew. I crossed my legs and put my head in my lap, keeping the tearing sobs as quiet as possible. My hands were constantly moving; at my scalp, on my knees, holding my elbows, they just wouldn't stay put.

"Mum... Mum..." I couldn't help the whimpers as they came out. "Why did you have to go?" I was crying so hard that my nose was completely blocked and I could no longer swallow, and my eyes were aching behind the sockets. It took me a full fifteen minutes to calm down enough to be able to see again and slowly start getting ready for my day. I had to get over this.

A quick glance in the mirror told me I had broken blood vessels around my eyes, from this mornings efforts. Crap. I carefully applied some cover-up, doing the best I could to hide the damage. Today's outfit was just a pink long-sleeved top, with my short-sleeved black hoodie over it, paired with jeans and hyper-colour chalk-drawing Cons. I left my room without checking the mirror again; I'd had plenty enough of that image this morning.

In an effort to rid myself of the dreams, I tried to be less clingy with Em, so I walked with a normal distance between us on our way to school. We'd left Toula at home, as the weather was still decent for walking.

"Hey, where are ya?" Em looked over to me with his arm held out. Looks like he liked the contact, too.

"Sorry," I said, moving back to hug his arm. "I thought I'd start giving you back your personal space."

"Overrated." He shrugged. "What made you want to invade it in the first place, Rooey?" I made a face at him and shook my head, but he lowered his eyebrows and tugged on my arm in a "tell me" gesture. So I relayed the dream to him, along with its repercussions and its consistency over the past week and a half.

"So that's why you asked me where I was going Saturday morning."

I looked at him, confused for a second. Then it dawned on me.

"I knew you were at my door that morning! Ya bugger."

"Get over it." He grinned. "But seriously, Bella. I'm not leaving this place without you. You know that, we've said it a million times. Like it has been since day dot; cheeky chooks stick together."

I nodded, agreeing with him, but I had to laugh at that, and hugged him tight around the waist. Nonna, Dad's Mum, was born in Italy and took great joy in giving us that nickname. We would always giggle at how her broken English would draw out the syllables, which I'm sure she emphasised for our amusement half the time.

I felt marginally better. I was glad Em finally knew about the dreams, but I couldn't shake the flat feeling I had as we walked into the car park. Alice took one look at me and danced up for a hug, a big smile on her face. She released me, but kept her arm around my waist, as I did with her.

"Is everything okay, Bella?" she asked quietly. She kept her smile up, although I could see the concern in her eyes.

"Yep, no worries," I said, giving her a slight squeeze. I wanted to convey that I appreciated her concern, but I didn't really want to talk.

"Tell me soon?"

"Maybe." I smiled at her as the warning bell went off and we all headed off to class.

Well, fuck. Nuthin' like a double homicide to start your school day. As if my day hadn't been shit enough already, Mercutio stuck his nose in others' business and overrode his best mate's pleas for peace with his misguided and pigheaded pride and ended up dead. Then bloody Romeo ditched what little sense he had acquired, lost his shit and killed the love of his life's cousin in retaliation - which incidentally, effectively ended all hopes of a happy ever after with her. God, and poor Benvolio; no one ever listened to the poor bastard. Ever.

I was filthy that this part of the story had fallen today. Not even Jasper's attempts at distraction could get me out of my rage. At one point he leaned a little closer to me. "Just a story, Bella," he whispered and knocked his knee into mine. I nodded, trying to take in his words, but couldn't get out of my mood until I was no longer surrounded by the story.

At the bell, I packed my book away as soon as I could and barely got out a "See you in French, Jas," before I was out the door. Once again I cursed my stubbornness when it came to mathematics. I toiled through the class, refusing to let it beat me today, and was rewarded by getting the equation right when called up to the front.

Chemistry was actually pretty decent. Angela and I worked together in a prac that could only be classed as fun as we dissolved, heated, cooled and mixed different compounds to observe their different reactions.

I was in a better mood by the time I got to French. Jasper entered the room with a worried look on his face, looking towards where we usually sat. I smiled at him, and when relief flooded his face I immediately felt guilty for him having to put up with my moods.

"Hey champ, how was photography?"

"Interesting, actually. We got a new project today. I'm going to need the group to help me with it, if I can get what's in my head off the ground."

"Sounds cool." The class started before I could ask for any of the details, and it was a good class. We worked in pairs, coming up with conversations about how to get to and from various parts of town and buying goods at the respective facilities. We worked hard and giggled over differing ways we could make French sound alternately suggestive or downright ugly with our native accents. It was the absolute highlight of my day, and lucky me, I got to see Jasper's grin make countless appearances. There was no denying it – the boy was adorable.

We went to lunch, still chuckling over some of our pronunciation faux pas. As soon as we sat, Jess was regaling Angela and Rosalie with something that had happened at cheer practice the night before. Em plonked down next to me and dove straight into my bag for his lunch.

"By all means, make yourself at home," I said, looking down at him.

"I will." He sat up with his sangas and a stony expression. Wowza, not good. I hadn't seen that face in a long time.

"Eh," I said, softly nudging him. He just shook his head and turned to Edward and Jasper, who were talking to Tyler about surfing. I half-listened to Emmett argue with them about their ability to beget children after surfing in such weather, taking the opportunity to zone out and recharge. I was brought out of my reverie suddenly, about ten minutes later, by Jess calling my name.

"Bella!" she called urgently.

"Jess!" I turned to her, imitating her urgency half-mockingly, just as Mum used to do to us.

"We were just talking about last night's practice. Now that Rosalie has quit, we need another person to round out numbers for a cheer Lauren and I are trying to choreograph. You should totally cheer with us!"

"Oh," I started, not really sure how to diplomatically say I'd rather stick my head in a bucket of huntsmen. Alice's hesitant look told me to take care but the fact that Lauren's face was wearing an open expression was the thing that really put me on edge. "Um, thanks Jess, but... I prefer to play sport, rather than cheer it."

"Is that right?" Lauren asked, with a fake smile. "So what sport do you actually play? Volleyball?"

I snorted. "No."

"Softball?"

"Not in my town."

"Soccer? Maybe table tennis?" What was this shit? I'd had just about enough.

"Lay off," my brother growled, glaring at her. "Just because she plays footy and doesn't cheer, doesn't make her a dyke." My head snapped to look at him. "You can stop your fuckin' mouth. Don't think I didn't hear you startin' shit this morning. You'll keep ya tongue in ya head if ya wanna fuckin' keep it." Emmett spat the last words at her, grabbing his bag roughly and dragging me, half-stunned out of the caf.

"What the hell, Emmett? What just happened?" He threw his bag onto the picnic table, seething.

"Stupid fucking vindictive..." he trailed, pacing.

"Bitchmoleslut?" I offered one of our compounded insults, trying to break the tension. Frick, he looked like he wanted to smash her, and Em doesn't do violence against women – Australia says no.

"Exactly." He huffed a breath and looked at me. I widened my eyes and gestured with my hands for him to continue. "She was talkin' shit about the reason you bein' so skilled at football was because you were a lesbian, and your big dyke girlfriend taught you, blah, blah, blah. Couldn't do much in class 'cause the teacher started payin' attention, but it's on, bitch. I don't want to start shit for Charlie, but no one starts crap about my sister."

"It's alright, Em," I tried to calm him down.

"It's not alright!"

"No it's not. Lauren was way out of line," Alice interjected. I was startled to find she was standing right beside me, with Rosalie just a step behind her. "Bella, can we talk to you for a minute?" I looked back at Emmett, not wanting to leave him in this state.

"The boys'll stay with him," Rosalie stated, indicating with her head that Jasper and Edward were coming out of the caf together. No one else was following them.

"Right." I reached past Em into his bag, got out the footy and pushed it into his stomach. He grasped it with a gush of air at the impact. "Relax, brudda," I commanded before turning around.

I let the girls lead me from the table to a bunch of trees, only looking up when we stopped walking, my eyes immediately on Emmett.

"Stupid freaking bitch, I am so sick of her shit!" I was startled by Rosalie's outburst, but Alice just threw her a look and took both of my hands in hers.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Her face held nothing but concern for me. Even so, I couldn't help but snort at the question.

"Yeah. Less than two weeks in and bitch has me pegged as a ragin' lesba. I'm tops." My eyes had strayed back to Em, watching him talk to the boys, only meeting Alice's eyes at the end of my sentence.

"Oh, don't even give her the satisfaction of paying her any attention. As soon as she feels a teeny bit threatened, she starts shit." I was about to protest, but Alice just talked over me. "She did the same thing with Rose. You've gotten closer to the hottest guys on the football team in one week than she has in her whole time here."

"But I'm not close to any of them, we're just mates – and barely that! We just chat a bit and play footy!"

"That's not what _she_ sees. All she sees is you encroaching on her territory. Like she owns all of them," Alice scoffed. "Hell, Rose has never wanted any of those guys, and Lauren was on her with the comments so often that she quit cheerleading. It didn't matter that they've been our friends forever, or that she's related to Edward."

"Alice," Rosalie hissed, "I did not quit because of her. It clashed with my volunteering at the hospital... and I was sick of her shit, so I let it go instead of changing my work times." She smirked at me. I gave her a wry smile back.

"So why isn't she all over your arse, Alice?" I asked, thinking of a certain bronze mop.

"Because I'm not a threat," she stated simply, with no emotion.

"Bull. Shit!" I said with emphasis, my pitch going up and down with each word.

"Exactly," Rosalie agreed. "Their mothers are friends and work together. Lauren picks and chooses her targets - Alice is off limits." Alice just shook her head and shrugged. We were silent for a sec.

"Do you reckon the damage'll be bad?" I asked them softly. I didn't really care all that much – I knew what I knew, as did those I cared about, but it could make school more difficult than it had to be.

"Nah, we'll shoot anyone down if they start spreading her rumours and so will the boys." Alice squeezed my arm in reassurance.

"Yeah, Angela stayed back so she didn't start anything more. We're a good group, always looking out for each other." Alice was nodding, agreeing with Rosalie. "Lauren may think she owns the school, but she's entirely delusional. We can be very influential if need be, so don't worry."

"I'm not, really. I'm more worried for Emmett. That's the closest I've seen 'im do his nut in a long time. He's always been protective, but now he's probably stressing more because of the lack of parents." I didn't see their sympathetic looks because my eyes were on the fella in question. He was teaching the boys the finer points of a handball. I sighed. "Ah well, fuck 'er. Well, not literally, seeing that's how all this shit started in the first place." I grinned at the girls and we made our way back to the boys.

"How are you, Bella?" Edward asked as we approached them.

"All this drama! I've been here for three days, and I feel like I've had enough for three years!" I plonked down on the bench seat. "If it's not stress about subjects it's frickin' vindictive cheerleaders starting rumours about my sexuality for cripe's sake."

"Well we've got your back on that, don't you worry." Jasper looked over at me seriously.

"Told you," Alice and Rosalie said in unison.

"Thanks, guys!" I smiled at them all, and Lauren was a distant memory.

"Yeah, thanks," Emmett nodded to them and smirked at me, "Let's see bitch try to get at you now."

"Pfft, bitch can try." I quickly leaned over and flicked the footy from Em's grip and ran off to some space to start some markers up.

The last two classes were fine. Edward and I chatted our way through biol as per usual, and I ran off some more steam in PE. Next thing I knew, I was meeting Em at the lockers again and we were on our way home.

"Phew! What a day huh, Rooey?"

"I know!" I laughed. "I feel like I'm in some sort of teen 'coming of age' movie. It's nuts. I hope it's about done now." I moved to hug his side, wriggling under his arm.

"Heh. Me too, Chook. We're all over the place as it is, like we need any outside help." We walked along in silence for a bit, but I was a little worried about Em's last comment.

"So, apart from my dramas, how're you going?"

"Okay, I guess. Missing home a bit more, especially today. You know who you can turn to, to sort shit out, you know? Today, I thought I had no one. Those guys are pretty cool though, ay?"

"Yeah, the girls were tops; made sure I was okay, told me Lauren pulls that shit pretty often and that they all had my back."

"Yeah, the guys said much the same thing. Apparently she's the village bike," he snorted, "and head cheerleader - how very stereotypical." I laughed and shoved into his side.

"Now, now. Don't go listening to other gossip. After today you should know better!" He just chuckled as we continued walking.

When we got home we had a snack and I started on dinner, seeing as we had missed the previous two nights. Emmett was fidgeting and trying to be helpful, but just managed to get in my way.

"Jesus, Em. Go for a run or something, you're drivin' me nuts." He huffed a bit and then did as I said. I finished putting together the lamb casserole and chucked it in the oven. By the time I had cleaned the dishes, the door slammed, signalling Emmett's return. He came into the doorway of the kitchen and waited for me to look at him.

"What are we going to tell Chuck?"

"Nothing like a bit of exercise to sort the questions in your head." I went back to setting the table.

"Bella," he prompted when I didn't answer his question.

"I don't know, Em. I suppose nothing until we find out if it actually comes to anything. Why stress him out if we don't have to?"

"He should know you're being bullied." I rolled my eyes at him.

"I don't think it's that bad yet, and I have you and the others. If it gets worse I'll tell him, okay?"

He sighed. "Okay."

"Dinner's in ten. Hop to it."

"Yes, sir."

Dinner was pretty much a non-event, which was fine by me, but I could tell that it was starting to piss Em off. Well, he could just suck it up; this was my decision. I would prefer this day didn't exist at all, and it had been a fair bitch of a day so far. I gave Em a warning look, and he finally cut me some slack and started chatting to Chuck about the Cubs game that was on that night. Who knew why, but he had become _obsessed_ with the Chicago Cubs. Maybe it was something to do with the draw of the underdog.

After dinner I watched telly with the guys, Em and I on either side of the coffee table, doing our homework. Even when I was done and I was way past being bored with the game, I stayed. Even when the second game of the evening started playing, I stayed. After the way I woke this morning, I was in no hurry to go to sleep again, but eventually Chuck put an end to my procrastinating and sent us both off to bed.

I climbed into bed, but read my book instead of attempting sleep, until Chuck stopped by on his own way to bed and again told me to turn out the lights. I dutifully turned out my light and put my book away, but remained sitting with my back against the headboard. I was planning on giving myself the chance of a dreamless night by not sleeping until I was dead tired. Eventually the only noises in the house were Chuck's snores and the light rain on the roof.

Okay, this was a stupid idea. I hadn't been good at sitting in this room in the dark since we moved here – what made me think it was going to be a restful experience this time? In the dark, my mind flicked endlessly through everything that had happened today and all of the other stuff I tried really hard not to think about.

I was shaken from my festering thoughts by a sound that was out of place with the background noises. Then I heard it again – Em was coming up the stairs. He probably needed to take a slash, I told him he didn't need that lemonade after dinner. When I didn't hear him turn on the bathroom light, I watched my door, my eyes pretty well adjusted to the dark by now. He cracked the door open as silently as possible and stuck his boof head in.

"Boo?" he called in an exaggerated whisper.

"Metty?" I copied him.

He slid into the room, closed the door gently and shuffled over to my bed, over-shooting the distance in the dark.

"Ah, fuck! Never mind, don't need those toes, I have others." He barely missed a beat as he climbed up onto my bed.

"What are you doing?"

"Sleep-over in Bella's room!"

"I wasn't told. Hope you didn't put that shit on MySpace. If Naughty Corey shows up, you're in trouble." He laughed lightly, getting himself comfortable between me and the wall. I could see his grin as he looked up at me from the pillow and I couldn't help but grin back. We hadn't done this in ages. It was always fun, the whispered conversations making even the most dull topic seem taboo, and the exaggerated way you had to do _everything_, so as not to make a noise.

"Didn't think you'd be asleep yet."

"Heh, not likely." At that, he flicked his wrist and googlied something small into my lap. "What's 'is?"

"I don't know, what is it?"

"Looks like something I told you I didn't want."

"Looks like I didn't listen."

"Like that's anything new," I retorted, fiddling with the small, wrapped box in my hands for a moment, before caving and picking at the sticky tape. In the paper was a small box that I opened at the hinge.

"You might need the light, ya nuffy." I turned on the lamp, both of us closing our eyes against the pain. Slowly opening one eye, I looked down at the box to see a small, silver oval locket with an intricate design etched on the front.

"Em, that's really pretty!" I breathed. He motioned his hands like reading a book to tell me to open it. My breath caught. Inside was a photo of the parentals. They were cuddled up at the beach; we'd just finished our picnic dinner this last New Year's Eve past. I should recognise it, I took the photo. I turned the locket and laughed through my nose.

"I told ya; you're a fatty." He pinched my leg in retaliation and I giggled.

"Whateva! How good is it?" The photo was of the two of us – a close-up of when we were mucking around that same day. Em had called stacks on and jumped on my back, completely flattening me. He was looking down over my shoulder, laughing at me while I laughed my shock and pain. It was a great photo of us, even if not the most flattering.

"Thanks, Membles. It's brilliant." I undid the clasp and put the necklace on, put the case and paper on the bedside table, turned off the light and snuggled under the doona, facing Em. My hand snaked towards him in search of his hand and found it, seemingly in search of mine. I squeezed his hand tight as my other came up to clutch the locket. He returned the squeeze and leaned in to give me a kiss on the forehead, before whispering against it.

"Happy birthday, Bella."

My throat got thick and I squeezed my eyes against the pain. My seventeenth birthday ended as it began – in tears.

**Definitions:**

**Cacking myself: The expression 'cack' has a couple of meanings. Here it means to double over in laughter. It can be used to describe a funny situation/person: that was a cack/he/she was a cack. Can also be used to describe fear: I was so scared, I cacked myself. 'Cack ya daks' (pants) is a great expression :D**

**Triple J: Nationwide youth radio station. Plays mainly alternative music.**

**Gums and Wattles: Australian native trees. Inescapable.**

**Filthy: Mad.**

**Huntsmen: The huntsman is a big, hairy spider, about the size of your palm. They move slowly in the South of the country, but are scarily speedy in the warmer North!**

"**Australia says No": No, this is not a re-working of Little Britain, it is from a big campaign for violence against women that has been running here for the last few years.**

**Naughty Corey: A couple of years ago, a 15 or 16 year old nutter had a party at his house while his parents were away and put the invitation out on MySpace. Huge amount of people showed up, and not only his house, but many others in the neighbourhood were damaged as the party got incredibly out of hand. He was in the news for a while and was dubbed Naughty Corey by people on Triple J, and possibly others.**

**Googlied: A googlie/googly is a cricket bowling delivery, where the ball is released from the back of the hand, up and over the pinky finger.**

**Well, there it is. Let me know what you think and if there is anything I've missed in the definitions, as always... :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi!**

**Firstly - A million thanks to MKT3 for all the brilliant American knowledge - football and otherwise - I am forever grateful! This chap would not be here without you**

**Massive thanks as ever to Momma Bear, commiserations on no Hugh for Christmas, why he insists on hiding, I'll never know.**

**And also huge thanks to Lharcom and Jewels, both, for your work and lovely words!**

**As ever - cheers to Norforruin for validation beta work :)**

**I don't own SM's stuff, but she doesn't own mine either!**

Chapter 7

_What the..? Why can't I move my legs?_ I opened my eyes and I was lying right on the edge of my bed, my arm tucked underneath my stomach. Why would I be here and not curled up in the middle of my bed like normal? I turned my head toward the centre of the bed. _Oh, that's why._ Em was right beside me, performing his usual downward starfish, taking up the majority of my bed, relegating me to the very edge. His head was turned toward me, and while I was thankful he wasn't snoring like a beast, I was horrified to see drool making its way from his cheek to my pillow. Feral, I was definitely going to have to change that pillowcase before tonight.

I tried again to move my legs, but they were bound tight. Seems the sheet had gotten all the way under my legs and was caught around Em's foot. Annoying, but not entirely unexpected - we both kicked like mother truckers in our sleep; it wasn't unusual for us to wake up with bruises. Some unintentional... others from retaliation.

It was about time to get up anyway, so I decided to rouse the ogre. I reached over to shake the arm next to me. He fidgeted a little, but didn't wake up. I moved my grip to his shoulder and shook harder.

"Come on, Plugger, move!" I groaned.

His face screwed up and he started blindly fighting me off with the one hand.

"Bloody hell, Bella, go back to your own bed."

His meat hook of a hand found purchase on my shoulder and he gave a good shove. I squawked as my top half fell out of bed and I miraculously moved my hand from beneath my stomach quickly enough to catch myself, before I was completely brained by the drawer handle on my bedside table.

"You're in _my_ bed, you retard! Now kick the sheets a bit, we're all tangled!"

He registered my words with a grunt and gave his legs a bit of a shake, loosening the sheet enough that my legs followed the rest of my body off the side of my bed. I landed with a thud, right on my hip. I groaned and rolled onto my stomach, thankful my body was now all safely on the one horizontal plane.

"Whaddaya doin' down there?" His boof head was hanging over the edge of the bed, laughing at me.

I glared at him.

"Uninvited. Get ya hairy arse out of my bed." I collected my limbs together and started to get up.

"Don't think I was invited in the first place."

"True. Rude. Get out." He chuckled and started to get up.

"I think I like your bed better. I may invade more often."

"Not a chance-"

There was a knock at my door, and before I even had a chance to answer, Em's shrill imitation of my voice called, "Come in!"

A confused Chuck stuck his head in.

"Emmett, did you spend the whole night here?" He was peering down at Emmett, who was back to being sprawled all over my bed like he friggin' owned it.

"Yep!"

"Why..?"

"Plotting went late and I fell asleep. We're gonna take over the world by stealth using a combination of Harry Potter, Driza-Bone's and schnitzel. Not sure exactly how yet... I reckon we've got the elements right, but." He winked at our Uncle. "Don't worry Chuck, _no funny bizniss..._" He finished off like M.I.A.

"Right. Well, I think I need caffeine before I speak to you again today." Bewildered, Chuck started to leave, but turned his head back. "You have a room. Use it."

When he had left, I turned back to Emmett, hands up in supplication.

"Do you have this shit stored up?"

"Nuh! It just comes to me - I'm a genius!" He jumped up and all of the sudden I was whacked over the head with a pillow, my sarcastic snort literally smacked from my face. "You're not usually this slow in the mornings."

"You're particularly annoying this morning. You've had too many hours at rest; go run somewhere." I shoved him out of my room, fending off blows from the pillow and yanking it out of his hands just as I slammed the door. I slumped against it, getting my breath back. God, I only just woke up and I wanted to go back to bed.

The morning was fairly normal from there on in. Romeo moped over his expulsion from Verona, I gave myself a headache ploughing my way through algebra, finished up the prac write-up with Ange in chem and sat next to a covertly misbehaving Jasper in French. The only odd thing that morning was Jess; she was silent in French.

About ten minutes into the class I was really starting to get worried about her. She caught me looking at her and I smiled. She smiled back tentatively and went back to her work. Bizarre. It didn't take a genius to figure out it had something to do with yesterday's shit-storm, but I wasn't sure what exactly was going on. Maybe she got an edict from Lauren to not talk to me. That'd suck. Jess was a bit ditzy, but she was a card. She was genuinely nice and fairly entertaining.

Lunch that day saw the tables once again decidedly divided, back to their original occupants, with one exception: Ben had joined our table, and was sitting next to Angela.

"Geez, Harvs, I think you actually scared her," I said, quickly looking over to Lauren and the separate table.

"Good," he retorted, full of attitude, but then looked up at me and grinned.

"That's because he _was_ scary. You should have seen him in media. I can't believe she actually said anything after the way you looked in class. Remind me never to piss you off," Alice said, leaning away from Emmett.

"Don't worry, chicken, I don't hit girls."

"You hit me!" I exclaimed at his blatant falsehood.

"Someone has to keep you in line. Unruly heathen." He winked at me.

"Whateva."

"Seriously guys, what is it with the two of you and calling me chicken? What is that?" Alice's imploring look was divided between the two of us, sitting on either side of her.

"Naww," Emmett cooed, "would you prefer ducky?"

"Galah?" I offered.

"Parrot?"

"My little lorikeet?"

"Kookaburra?"

"Emu?"

"Nah, not tall enough. Jabiru?"

"And who have you ever called jabiru?" I asked with a scoff.

"No one, but I've never met anyone who jabbers the way this one does."

"Fair call." I shrugged.

"What? I still don't understand! Why birds? Those were all birds, right?" Alice was getting indignant between us, flipping her head from side to side with each comment as we sat, relaxed as, bantering back and forth, not looking directly at her.

"What, you want a farm animal?" Em suggested.

"Cow," I dead-panned.

"Nannygoat." That got chuckles from the table, but we kept our faces straight.

"Piglet."

"Lamblet?" Emmett pouted to a now pouting Alice.

"Sheep." I nodded.

"I do not follow the crowd!" She rounded on me.

"And she's not from New Zealand," Em stated. I snorted at that, and broke out of our attack.

"Maybe she's a _fox_!" I rounded my shoulders as I emphasised the word.

"Damn straight," Em agreed.

"What? Why? I'm not sneaky!"

"Not that way - you're a foxy lady!" Em was wiggling his eyebrows at her and she just turned to me with hers furrowed, asking me to explain further.

"Means you're sexy," I responded with a wink.

Alice looked slighted mollified as we laughed and got up from the table.

The boys had other ideas for lunch today. Edward got a brown footy with pointed ends out of his bag.

"Think quick!"

With a flick of his wrist, he threw the ball to a surprised Emmett.

"And what am I supposed to be doing with this?"

"Ya chuck it, but for some reason it's called a football," I snarked.

"Hey! If you can't respect it, you sit it out," Jasper scolded, looking over his left shoulder and pointing at me. I half expected him to have his other hand on his hip and finish with an "mmmhmm."

"Relax, Yass, I'm just havin' a dig," I said, grabbing his finger and giving it a light shake.

"Yass?" he asked, finger still hovering in the air after I had released it.

_Whoops!_ I had been thinking it for most of this week, but hadn't planned on putting out into the universe yet.

"Uh, yeah... It's just using the soft pronunciation for J - Yasper," I said, ending his name with a French 'r' roll. "Then just shortened to Yass." Everyone was looking at me like I was nuts - except Emmett. He thought for a second, and then nodded his head once, while raising the footy in his hand a bit, like in a greeting.

"Yassou," he said with the nod.

"Yassou!" I cheerily replied. I turned to the even more bewildered Jasper. "Well, say hello! It's rude to look like a stunned mullet when someone greets you."

"I really have no idea what you're talking about."

"It's just hello in Greek, mate. Now, what'm I doin' here, fellas?"

We spent the next fifteen minutes trying out different passes. For me it was an absolute and utter fail. I couldn't quite get enough of a grip on the ball with a single hand to throw it properly. Even when I could grip it, the forward throwing motion with the twist of the arm was something my arm and wrist refused to coordinate. The flick behind pass I had a little more success with because I had two hands - but then there were double the coordination issues.

Edward was patient with me and kept trying to determine where I was going wrong and rectify it, whereas Jasper thought it was hilarious every time the ball wobbled feebly out of my hands.

"Yeah, laugh it up, Yass. I saw your crap excuse for a handball yesterday. Wait 'til we teach you how to bounce."

He wasn't at all fazed by my outburst, he just laughed harder. Miffed, I turned to watch Emmett throw a perfect spear pass. Bugger was a natural, of course. He was a super-freak when it came to sports; he could grasp skills so quickly it was sickening. I liked to think of him as some sports hippy nut-case, communing with the sports equipment, meditating with it so that it was eventually just an extension of his body. _Yeah, maybe I'm a little sleep deprived._

"OK, I wanna try something." Edward had caught the ball and was now walking towards Emmett. He got a little contraption out of his pocket, put it on the ground and set the ball upon it. He stood up and turned to Em.

"OK. Kick it as hard and straight, in that direction, as you can," he said, indicating the grassy area that led to the woods.

Em just stood there, looking at the ball for a sec. Then he did the most bizarre, exotic bird mating dance thing I had ever seen. He looked at the ball, then up to where he wanted to kick it, and then back down to the ball, back up, down to the ball, walked towards the ball, and stopped. Then he changed direction and performed the ritual from two different angles. _This_ was why he was immediately good at sports.

We all stood there watching him go through the motions, deciding the best way to go about it. He finally took a few steps back, took a breath, and set his shoulders. He took a small run-up and booted the crap out of the ball. It _flew_. It spun beautifully, end over end in a gorgeous arc, smack bang in the direction Edward had pointed.

"Holy shit," Jasper drawled though his half-grin.

"This is perfect," Edward said in an aside to Jasper, gave him a light punch in the arms and ran off in the direction of the ball. When he returned, he put the ball straight back on the little stand. "Think you can do it again?"

"Only one way to find out, I s'pose." He shrugged and watched Edward set up the ball again.

"He really needs to be on the team," Rosalie said quietly, not taking her eyes off the scene in front of us.

"You reckon? Haven't they already started the season? Is there room in the team for him?" Ok, so it seems that when I'm surprised I can rail off questions to give even Jess a run for her money.

"Absolutely. We need a decent kicker. We haven't had one since Joel graduated two years ago."

Emmett lined the kick up, taking his time in the decision-making again and sent the ball sailing in a very similar direction to the previous kick. The boys were beside themselves, getting Em to kick in numerous directions for the remainder of the lunch session.

By the end of lunch it was settled; we were going to watch the game this Friday night and Em was going to training, or 'practice' as they were always referring to it, beginning next week.

I sat through biol, working through the class assignment basically by myself as Edward was entirely distracted with football, and the new 'depth' Em's presence would give to the team, if he joined. I tried to keep up with both Edward and the class assignment, but one was certainly easier than the other. The assignment was fairly straight-forward, and luckily for Master Cullen, easy enough for me to do without help.

Edward, on the other hand, was muttering half sentences and asking me half-questions about Emmett's 'range and angle', which I had no answers for because I had no clue, and honestly thought it sounded down-right dirty.

Half way through the class, he had still not made a single effort with our class-work.

"Yep. No worries, Cullo, I got this," I said to the side of his head while he was busily scribbling out a play diagram.

"Oh yeah, thanks, Bella," was the distracted response I received. I shook my head and resumed my work. Yep, he and Em would be great mates.

PE was annoyingly docile for the fact that I was looking forward to a good run, having not done much of anything at lunch. I was surprised to find no Emmett when I got to my locker at the end of the day, so I got my crap together and went on a mission to find him. Easily enough, I found him at his locker chatting flat stick with Edward and Yass.

I waited for a few minutes, but when the galah session didn't look like it was going to ease, I piped up.

"Hey, Rocca, you want me to go ahead or wait for you?" Emmett's body went completely stiff and he turned his head slowly, a death glare I wasn't completely surprised to find well in place.

"What did you call me?"

"Keep ya knickers on. You know Sav left the AFL to become a kicker for the Eagles over there. It was a compliment." I smirked, knowing it was only half a compliment.

"You couldn't have gone for Benny Graham?" Ah yes, the Cat, who was now a Cardinal.

"You're built more like Rocca," I blurted before thinking. Em's face darkened further. "Shit! Laters!" I slapped Jasper on the shoulder and bolted out of the building.

I giggled to myself as I jogged out of the school grounds. I was in trouble now. Saverio Rocca was built like a brick shit-house and was one of the ugliest players in the AFL. Em had always been fairly tall, he had been six foot by the time he was fifteen, but in the last eighteen months he had started to seriously fill out.

Sure, I called him fatty all the time, but it was clearly an ironic nick-name, kind of like the old guys around the farms calling our stick-thin grandfather 'barrel'. Emmett had outgrown the neck and chest of his tops because of muscle mass, not lipid accumulation. He would go to the gym a couple of times a week with footy training and effortlessly packed on the muscle like it was going out of fashion; much to the displeasure of Damo and Aidey, who went to the gym twice as often, even drinking those feral protein shakes, and yet remained half the size of Em.

He was definitely uncomfortable with how big he had gotten in such a small amount of time, but he could see how the girls reacted to him. He was a mix of outward confidence and quiet self-consciousness. Being the good sister I am, I would take his weakness and mess with it.

Even though I had just run home, I thought it would probs be best if I was out when Em got home, and come back later when I had the cover of Chuck. I got into my running gear, grabbed the headphones for Dad's iPhone, and bolted from the house, down the path that led along the side of the woods.

I soon forgot I was running from Emmett as I listened to Dad's running playlist. It was full of great music that was surprisingly good to run to, from Gene Pitney, Roy Orbison and Dean Martin to Something for Kate and Powderfinger, with some surprises like a few Britney tracks and the recent addition of Passion Pit.

God, I missed him, especially at times like this. He was always one to stir the pot. He would tease Mum until she went spare at him. I think half the reason he did it was just so he could cuddle and comfort her afterwards. Nutter.

I got back to the house to find the front door locked. I lifted up onto my toes to reach up to the eave to get the spare key. Seriously, for a Top Cop, Chuck was one relaxed mother about his home security. Suppose you'd have to be off your trolley to rob the Top Cop, though.

_Hmm, no key._

I used one hand to steady myself on the wall as I did a crab shuffle to feel the entire eave, my hand only finding wood and air.

"Shit," I muttered, looking on the decking for the key in case it had dropped. Nada.

I knocked on the door. Nothing. Did Em go out? I knocked harder and called out for him, and kept it up until I was certain he would hear me, even if he was down in the basement.

Eventually he opened the front door.

"What?" He made no move to unlock the screen door.

"I can't find the spare key."

"Unfortunate."

"Did you put it back on the eave?"

"Nope, I brought it in." _Oh shit._

"Ah, why?"

"So you couldn't use it." _Yeah, I was in trouble._

"Come on, Sav, that's not necessary."

"You're not helping yourself." He scowled at me and shut the door.

I decided to wait out my punishment and sat on the seat under the window. I didn't last very long as I was in sweaty, light-weight running clothes. Not ten minutes later, I was banging on the door again.

"_What?_" he answered, all mad, like _I_ was annoying _him_.

"Come on, ya dumb shit, it's cold out here!"

"Then stop making me open the door, I'm losing all the heat!" He slammed the door in my face again.

"EMMETT! Lemme in, ya-" I caught myself before I let fly where all the neighbours could hear me. _Hang on a sec... the neighbours can hear me._ I smiled and walked slowly to the edge of the porch and jumped off in front of Toula, giving her hood a tap with my hands - da-dum-bump.

I had embarrassed Em today and now he was trying to goad me into losing my temper and embarrassing myself. Well, I would do one better than that and play the game my way; I shook my body out, channelling my camp Guy Pearce. I knew Em wouldn't be far away; he was punishing me for fun, he wasn't pissed enough to just wait in out in his room. I brought forward my best Ocker.

"Oi don't care if the sun don' shoine,

Oi get moi luvin' in the evenin' toime,

When Oi'm wiiith moi baybee!"

I ran and skipped around Toula, singing at the top of my lungs and giving her roof, windows and hood very generous slaps.

"It's no fun with the sun arownd,

But Oi get gowin' when the sun goes down,

And Oi meeet moi baybeee!"

I saw the porch light of our neighbours across the road turn on and a lady appear out of her door, checking what the commotion was. I thought I saw Em's silhouette at the side of the window for a sec, so I kept on, upping my Toula interaction, to make sure he couldn't ignore me. I was already embarrassing myself in front of what was now several neighbours, so I decided to throw in some dance moves as well, fairly sure Em was watching.

"That's when we kiss and kiss and kiss,

And then we kiss some mawwww"

_Surely this couldn't go on much longer, come on!_

The door opened and I could hear Em cacking himself, so I ran up there and sang and danced in front of the screen door, banging on it and the weatherboards in Toula's absence.

"Don't ask haw maneee toimes we kissed,

'Cos at a toime loike this-"

He flicked the snib and opened the door.

"Get in, ya psycho, before someone calls Chuck," he said in amongst his laughter. His sentence was barely out before I yanked the door out of his grip and dashed inside, past him and up the stairs.

"It's bloody cold out there, ya bitch!" I yelled as I ran up the stairs and straight into the bathroom for a nice hot shower.

Throughout the night, Em would start humming "I don't care if the sun don't shine" and I couldn't help but start to giggle.

"Care to let me in on the joke, guys?" Chuck reluctantly took his gaze from the baseball to look at Em working at the coffee table.

"Bella treated the neighbours to a bit of a song and dance this arvo. Bit of cabaret, hey Bells?"

"What? Bella?"

"I was cold." I shrugged. "Em locked me out." _Deal with that, sucker._

"She called me fat."

"Sticks and stones, Princess."

"Christ, you two. Can't you be nice to each other for more than a few hours at a time?"

"So much easier said than done, Chuck," Em sighed.

"Dad called it character-building," I offered.

"Sounds like an excuse to let the two of you to act like hooligans," Chuck grumbled.

Em grinned a big cheesy. "Oh Chuck, you ain't seen nuthin' yet."

Friday classes were a blur of concentration, assignments and confusion; the latter being due to the excited and incessant chatter about the endless possibilities of Em joining the Spartans. I was happy that they were so excited about the prospect of Em joining the team; I just wished that I could join in the conversations and get more caught up in the excitement.

The confusion came when trying to get straight the position and play names. Any fool knew the quarterback threw the ball, but really, a quarter? That kind of seemed a specific fraction. The wide receivers seemed kind of self-explanatory, and while I was pretty sure that the half-backs and full-backs were not exactly the same as in AFL, I presumed they would pretty much also follow their position descriptions. But I would be buggered if I could think of what a tight-end was - it just sounded... uncomfortable.

Through lunch the boys talked tactics about the best way to approach Coach Clapp about Em's late inclusion into the team. They didn't really think they'd run into any trouble, they just wanted to be prepared in case Tyler decided to "put his second left foot down," and make trouble for them about his usual position.

It was an away game this week, but only twenty minutes away, so we decided to follow Alice and Rose there. Angela couldn't make it this week; if she babysat her brothers this Friday, then she was free to come to the home game and party next week.

Alice's car was very Alice. It was an old, faded buttercup yellow VW Beetle, very well maintained with cute, cream leather interior.

"Ooooh! Someone's a speed demon! Man, if Chuck catches me speeding, she can take the rap. Chook can use her pixie charm on him," Em grouched.

"You gunna make Chook charm Chuck? Can she sell sea shells by the sea shore?"

"Only if she chops wood-chips like the wood-chopper chops." he grinned back at me.

"I think we need to start seeing other people," I said with a roll of my eyes. "You excited about the match?"

"Yeah, should be good. Be nice to see some live-action sport again. I'm worried I'm gunna leave a permanent arse-print on that couch." There were a few minutes of silence before Em spoke up again. "I've been meaning to ask you - how have your dreams been the last couple of nights?"

"Nights are fine, it's the mornings that get me. But yeah, nah, fine enough. Nuthin' when you were there and just the usual this morning." I shrugged. The dream didn't appear when Em was there, but I would be buggered if I was going to share a bed with Em for the next however-long until the dreams went away.

He grimaced at me, not liking my answer, but left it alone.

We pulled up to a football field next to a school and parked. The place was packed.

"Geez, these guys really like their high school sport," I observed.

We got out of the car, met up with the girls and went up to the stands and found ourselves a seat. Looking around, there was some serious team spirit happening, and not just from the cheerleaders or the home team. Everyone was wearing the colours of their respective teams, some people even going to the extent of painting their faces and some friggin' nutters that were running around shirtless, their chests all painted. Em pretended to cover my eyes and cacked himself when I smacked a jab into his ribs.

"Cripes," Emmett breathed, "That is a big, fuck-off crowd. You barely get this sort of enthusiasm for an AFL match."

Lauren, Jess and crew ran out and started chanting cheerily, jumping, doing splits and all sorts of hand movements. Holy mac their skirts were short. I pulled an Em and covered his eyes when he was staring, slack-jawed. We both cracked up when he copied my previous actions. It was just nuts, there was absolutely nothing like that at home - we were luvin' it!

The cheers that rang out when the teams emerged from the change rooms were huge; you couldn't help but get caught up in the excitement. The Spartans had their white and gold uniform and looked pretty schmick, the boys all running out with their helmets in their hands. I quickly spotted the mess of blond hair I couldn't help but admit to myself, that I was here to see. There was, as usual, an insane amount of players per team, but not quite as many as I saw on TV. I was surprised that there were actually enough guys of playing age at the school.

The boys all jammed their helmets on their head and listened in for their pep-talk before making a masculine growly-cheer, smacking each other's helmets and dissipating.

The game was pretty rough, but I suppose that can't be helped when the object of most of the players on each team is to smash and take out as many players as possible to minimise the number available to actually move the ball. An interesting tid-bit I learnt very early, that I couldn't believe I missed this last fortnight, was that Edward was the team's leading quarterback.

I gave Alice a bit of a ribbing for it, but you could tell by the genuine excitement on her face when she watched him, that this was no star-footy-player crush, she was very taken with him.

"So Cullo throws, as quarterback," I started, "What's Jaspers' position name, when he's the main one Edward's trying to throw to?"

"Well, he's a wide receiver," Rose said, while I nodded. That made sense. "But they're also playing Brett as a tight-end, so he's pretty much playing as a flanker." _Why did she have to go and complicate it like that? I was doing so well!_

Emmett saw my face fall to a pout at the second piece of information and chuckled, waving a hand that told me he'd explain it later.

I watched the play go back and forth, understanding the general gist of the sport, but not what each player's specific role was. Fairly normal for most of the sports I watched, really.

We ended up winning by two points and our part of the crowd was going nuts; the four of us especially, hooting and shouting our heads off. Elated by the win, we chattered excitedly in the car park as we waited for the guys to get cleaned up before we headed back.

"How 'bout them Spartans?" Emmett called out while we were leaning up against Alice's car. We all turned to see Ben, Edward and Jasper heading into the car park and we all started hooting and clapping again, the boys joining in when they got closer.

"We're heading to the diner for some food. You guys wanna join?" Edward asked us when we were all together.

I looked over at Emmett, but shouldn't have even bothered, because he was already agreeing and heading towards the car.

"I wanna follow someone else, though. I don't wanna have to explain myself to Chuck when he pulls us up for going four times the limit. Don't look at me like that, Chook, you know what you did."

"You are such a baby!" she called to him.

"No, I'm protective of my being able to drive Toula. I'm not as pretty as you; I can't charm my way out of tickets."

"Sure you are, sweetie." She winked at him and ducked into the car, giggling with Rosalie.

"Chuck doesn't seem to think so," he said over the car to me, with a dejected pout. His face morphed into a smirk when I just shook my head at him, and we got into the car.

We followed Edward back to Forks at a much more sedate pace. While I think Em actually preferred Alice's speed, there was no way he was going to give anyone a reason to give Chuck hell about either of us.

We packed into a booth at the diner, with Jasper on a chair at the end. I looked over at Em and was looking around uncomfortably; we always got shoddy looks from the staff at this place, it was unnerving. The boys were 'starving', so we ordered a couple of pizzas and some nachos for the table.

"I want chips," Em announced to the table.

"There are chips in the nachos, isn't that enough?" Rose asked. _Not what he meant, but even so: no, that is probably not enough_, I thought.

"Hot chips," he clarified. "I haven't had chips in _ages_!"

"You mean fries," Jasper offered.

"Nah, man. I don't want those skinny things; I want some thick cut chips. Oh man, fish and chips, chips and gravy... what am I gunna do?"

I sighed in longing at the mention of fish and chips, but cringed at the next one. "Yuck, there is nothing more disgusting than chips and gravy."

"Sounds pretty awesome to me," Edward piped up, Ben nodding in agreement. Nutters.

A serve of fries was added to the order.

While we waited for the food, the boys went over the game in detail; the awesome plays, as well as the dirty ones, the ref's mistakes - of which apparently, there were countless - and how all of these plays could be improved, especially when Tyler gave up kicker and went back to his normal position. The conversation continued when the food came, just with less interruptions and talking over the top of one another.

"So, how did you do following the game?" Jasper asked when he reached past me to get a slice of pizza.

"The game itself is easy enough to follow," I replied. "It's just the strategies and play set-ups that I'm not up with yet. And I really don't know why you have to switch teams when you're defending and when you're attacking."

"Because each team is specifically for either the offence of the defence of the ball," he explained.

"We don't have complete offence and defence teams, though. A couple of the guys play both, and we just switch a few guys around."

"Der. But you have those guys that defend next to the centre and all that, why don't they just defend again?"

"Well OK, but there are the receivers and the quarterback that really don't defend and would get hurt if they tried to tackle the way the others do."

"What? But I've seen receivers tackle and defend!" I was starting to get a little confused, because I could swear I had seen that more than once.

"That's the tight-end, he's kind of a special case," he tried to explain. "He can block and receive."

"I'll show _you_ my tight-end," I huffed in exasperation, right when there was a lull in the conversation over the rest of the table. Ben and Edward simultaneously started choking on their food, while Jasper stared at me wide-eyed, and Emmett erupted with laughter. His boom shook the girls and Jasper out of their stupor, and what I said finally caught up with me and I burst out laughing.

"Frickin' awesome!" Emmett wheezed in between his peals of laughter.

"That came out so much worse than I expected!" I gasped, which set us both off again.

"What the hell?" Jasper was dividing his stunned gaze between the two of us as we started to settle down.

"That, my friend, was an 'I'll show you my' and you just got owned by one of the best in the business! The other being myself, of course." Emmett grinned.

"Of course," I muttered in his direction.

"What the hell is an 'I'll show you my?'" Ben asked.

Emmett paused for a second, quite possibly trying to think, as I was.

"It's kind of hard to explain," he offered.

"Is it a kind of come-back?" Alice piped up.

"Not really," I replied. "It kind of just slips into the conversation when the opportunity arises. Usually you don't even realise you're saying it until it's out. Prime example just given." I smirked and shook my head in embarrassment. "But it's usually a conversation stopper."

"No shit." Jas was giving me his arched eyebrow and half-grin. I shrugged.

"Well, on that note, I think it's time for the cheque," Edward kindly noted, and signalled to the waitress.

She brought over the bill and we passed it around, getting our share of cash out of our wallets.

"Em, can you work out the tip?" Jasper asked, whilst digging into his pocket, using his chin to point to the bill that had stopped in front of Emmett.

"Whaddaya mean?" Emmett looked up at him, confused.

"The tip, dude. How much will it be? I gotta make sure I have enough. Peter went through my wallet before I left the house and I'm sure he lifted some cash, the rodent," he said, referring to his brother that I learned through the week was in middle school.

Emmett's eyes grew wide and flew to mine. "Bellaaaa!" he whispered, panic in his eyes.

"Whhhaaaat?" I mimicked him.

"No wonder they friggin' hate us here - we never tip!"

Realisation hit me and my face dropped. Well didn't I feel like shit? I put my hands over my face and breathed a disbelieving laugh.

"Didn't even think of that," I admitted.

"What? How can you guys not think of tipping? How tight are you?" Rosalie asked, with mirth.

"Don't even go there," I cut Em off before he could answer the way he wanted. "There's no tipping at home," I explained.

"Really?"

"Nope. Everything costs as much as it does on the menu, no extra tax and definitely no tip! Shit here is confusing." Emmett shook his head to emphasise his point.

Alice had worked out the tip and we paid and started to leave the diner.

"So why don't you guys tip? That kind of seems shitty," Edward asked.

"It's just not something we do," Em replied.

"I think the minimum wage is different over there, and that makes a difference," Ben offered. We all looked at him.

"I'm not sure how you know that, but it makes sense." Emmett nodded.

"Well there ya go, Harvs, we're gunna have to learn how to tip."

"Well we've got cows down, so cafes should be a breeze." I rolled my eyes while everyone else laughed, and started pushing him toward the car.

"Come on, smartarse, home. I'm tired. See you guys on Monday! Go Spartans!" I called in farewell and received various replies of kind, apart from one that stood out.

"See you soon, Bella!" Alice's voice rang out in the night air.

"That sounded like a promise, Rooey." Emmett said as Toula roared to life.

A smile lit up my face as I realised I really wanted it to be.

**Australian Definitions**

**Feral - used here in place of expressions like 'gross' or 'ew'.**

**Plugger - Reminder: Ex-AFL player that played for St Kilda and Sydney. Huge.**

**Boof Head - A boof head is an idiot, here it kind of reads 'his idiot head'.**

**Driza-Bone - Full-length leather riding coats.**

**But. - Ending a sentence in but is not an uncommon turn of phrase. Only used in casual speak.**

**MIA song reference - Paper Planes.**

**Prac - Short for practical session, a lab.**

**A Card - Someone you find amusing, slightly eccentric.**

**Relaxed As - Lol, this one always trips up the betas. The 'as' is just an exaggeration of whatever has come before it, i.e. tired as, hungry as, etc. Not an unfinished comparison :)**

**Stunned Mullet - Someone who is shocked that looks like a fish out of water, like a stunned mullet.**

**Flat Stick - Flat out, at pace.**

**Galah session - term given to the time ladies from around the outback used to chat over the first pedal-powdered radios.**

**Saverio Rocca and Ben Graham - AFL players that left the Collingwood Magpies and Geelong Cats respectively, either near or at the end of their careers to become punters in the NFL.**

**Stir the pot - tease**

**Off your trolley - crazy**

**I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine - Song made popular by Patti Page, featured on The Adventures of Pricilla: Queen of the Desert, sung by Guy Pierce.**

**Big, Fuck-Off - The 'fuck-off' is a descriptor, again adds emphasis, but itself is not emphasised when used in the sentence.**

**Schmick - Slick/cool**

**Cheers, guys! As ever, let me know if you have any questions, queries, comments, whatevs!**

**'Til next time,**

**Curious**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello again! It's been forever, but I'm back with the next chap... Not too many notes up top, but just a reminder of Australian language use:**

**We will end sentences with the word 'but'.**

**We will use 'as' as a descriptor, not as a comparison - and no, we are not saying 'ass'! Example: it's sunny as outside, sweet as, I'm tired as, etc...**

**There may be intentional misspelling for accent promotion.**

**Remember, if you run into something you don't quite know, there are definitions at the bottom and I'm happy to help with any I have missed!**

**Hope you like it :)**

**Many thanks to my beta's: Angelz and the ever-present and ever-wonderful Momma Bear!**

**Cheers to Nowforruin for the validation beta work.**

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer, etc.**

Chapter 8

I woke with a sudden jolt. Looking out my window, I saw that it was still completely dark, and the only noise was the light rain on the roof. Nothing unusual there, so I wasn't sure what it was that woke me up. It was only when the light on my phone turned off that I noticed it was actually lit up, and I had been woken by a message coming through.

_Jesse. Wha..? Oh!_

**We're IN! Sainters Premiers 2010! Aaahhhhh! U guys better b up 4 a midnight viewing!**

Holy shit, we made it. I was out of bed and flying down the stairs in the dark, being quiet as I could for Chuck, but didn't even bother when going down Em's stairs.

"Harvs! Harvs!" I called quietly but excitedly on my way down. "Did you get Jess's message?"

"Wha? What message? When?" was the tired grunt I received.

"Just now! We're in! The Saints are in the Grand Final!" I said in an excited half-whisper, shaking his bed with both hands. He sat up quickly.

"Oh fuck, the game was this morning! Shit, I forgot. Crap." Not the reaction I was expecting.

"Ah well, don't worry 'bout it now," I replied, a bit deflated.

"Fuck," he expelled quietly, falling back onto his pillows, and looking up at the ceiling. "YES!" He roared suddenly, his arms straight up in the air, his hands in fists. I squealed and hopped up onto his bed, dancing and jumping around, chanting "Grand Final!" over and over again until I flopped down onto the end of his bed, out of breath.

"Dad said we'd make it again this year," Em said, the smile evident in his voice.

"Sure did." We both sat there in contemplative silence for a little bit.

"We'll watch it down here Friday night. I think ESPN is showing it live."

"Sweet as," I replied, sighing as the ungodly hour caught up with me. "Righto, I'm goin' back to bed. That was enough early morning excitement, I think." I patted his blanket-clad shin twice, rolled off the end of the bed, and snuck back through the house a cold and tired mess, the quick burst of adrenaline having already worn off.

I woke again, hearing myself call Em's name. Not cool. At least he's turning around to look at me when the car drives away, I would call that improvement. Perhaps within the month he can be standing with me on the road, or better yet, the dreams could just friggin disappear.

I turned my head to look at the clock. 7:00 A.M. Seriously, I need to learn to sleep in; it's only been two hours since the impromptu celebration. Moccies and hoodie donned, I trudged downstairs.

Chuck was already at the table with toast and coffee, reading the paper. I collapsed into a chair, my head on my arm that I extended over the table. I let out a sigh and closed my eyes.

"Morning, Bella."

I didn't need to open my eyes, I could _hear_ his smirk. I couldn't do much more than grunt a sort of greeting at him. I was still half asleep and not fully functioning yet.

"Why are you up, Bella?"

"'Cause. I'm awake now." I finally got my mouth cooperating.

"You look it."

I opened one eye and confirmed that he was, indeed, smirking at me.

"Awake enough. No going back to sleep now." I sighed again and pushed up into a sitting position where my neck had to actually support my head. "You working today, Chuck?" I asked, both my eyes open now.

"Yeah, 'til four or so," he replied with a sip of his coffee. "You and your brother got any plans today? Any more cooking competitions?"

"Ha, don't get your hopes up. That wasn't planned, it just happened. I doubt it, but. We've got Toula now, so if we get that bored we can go out and look for something to do. The cinema or something." Poor Chuck, my tired head could only work in small, fairly incomplete sentences.

"Hm, OK. Just call me if you're going to leave town."

"No probs," I said with a yawn.

I got up when Chuck did, going into the lounge room while he went to finish getting ready for work. I was settled into playing Harry Potter 5 on the Xbox before he stuck his head in the room to say goodbye.

"See you later, Bella."

I leaned my head back on the arm rest to look upside down at him behind me.

"Have a good one, Charlie!" I smiled at him.

"Sure. Don't let that big lump stay in bed all day."

"Not a chance."

I played for another forty-five minutes before I went to check on Em. I did value my life and if I kept waking him up at ridiculous o'clock, he was going to eventually snap. I cracked the door open and immediately heard the murmur of his voice.

"So, have you finished the coursework in Legal yet?"

Right, so he was talking to someone from home. Most likely Tanya, as they did Legal Studies together.

"So after the SAC on Wednesday, it'll be Unit 4 summary and practice exams."

I was low enough on the stairs now to see him. He was still in bed, lying on his back, his phone to his ear while he watched me come down the stairs. He smiled and waved hello. I waved back and mouthed "morning!" and left him to his phone call. I went back to the couch and resumed my duel with Draco - smug prat.

Not long later, Em joined me on the couch, watching my progress in the game while still on the phone. I half-listened as they chatted about school and a few of our friends. Seems Irina and Thomma had finally made out at Jonesy's party after liking each other for goodness knows how long. Unfortunately, Thomma didn't really want to get into anything serious because he was hoping to get into Med at Melbourne Uni next year, while she would be lucky if her parents allowed her to study at the TAFE in town.

Meanwhile, her brothers were allowed to do whatever they wanted. She was just as smart as her brothers, but because she was a girl, she had to stay home and prepare to be a good wife for one of the boys from their ethnic community. She rebelled against it, going out whenever she could without her parents knowing and partying - hence always getting Tanya in trouble and never really making a real move with Thomma, knowing her parents would never approve of him.

Luckily for Tanya, her parents were nothing like that, even though they were from the same community. They valued education and her right to be independent and live her own life. She was hoping to get into a Commerce/Arts double degree, maybe even Commerce/Law, if she could swing the marks.

"Try not to stress, Tan. Two more months and it will all be over," he consoled, smiling into the phone. "Whaddaya mean, I'm lucky?" he asked, confused. "Huh, well. Tanya, apart from the obvious; I got within a couple of months of being finished and now have to friggin' start all over again. I wouldn't call that lucky."

My shoulders hunched slightly in discomfort for him.

Another sigh. "I know you didn't, sweetie. Yeah, I know, it's tough. Yeah, for both of us. So do I. Mmm, yep. Yeah, I'd better let you study. Call me tomorrow? OK, study hard. Love you, miss you. Bye sweetie." He ended the phone call and dropped the phone into his lap and watched my progress through Hogwarts.

"How are you so shit at this? Isn't it aimed for eight-year-olds?"

"I'm not, this bit's tricky!" I defended.

"You're making a bloody dog's breakfast out of it."

"I'll show you my breakfast," I muttered. He snorted a laugh.

"You feral beast. I think you should keep your breakfast to yourself. Don't be showing any of the boys around here either. Hussy."

"Shut up, I didn't mean that," I said with a chuckle. We sat there in silence for a few more minutes.

"Urgh, this is painful. Gea'us." He motioned for the controller with a flick of his hand.

"No. Bugger off, I'm playing."

"No you're not, you're killing me."

"Either way," I shrugged.

"C'mon, give us it here," he said, more determined and leaning toward me.

"No, Emmett, I'm playing. You go and find something else to do!"

He leaned right over and made a grab for the controller, which I snatched away. The result was a full-on scuffle of shoves and elbows in ribs and at one point I managed to get a grip on his chin and held him away, while holding the controller in the opposite hand.

But that move was my downfall. For a couple of seconds he grunted against my hand, trying to reach for the controller, but then he hit the inside of my elbow, buckling my arm, and took the opportunity to climb over me, holding my outstretched arm in place and snatching the prize out of my hand. He quickly retreated to his end of the couch, fending off my attacks.

He managed to get an annoying hold on my head, much like my own on his chin, where I couldn't even reach his ribs to get a good pinch in. I tried to pull the same move that broke me, but he was too strong. Exasperated, I started pulling at the hairs on his arm. He screamed like a little girl.

"Ah! You little witch! Stop that!" He let out periodical squeals and little screams when I got a good grip on the hairs. It was kind of tough, because I was simultaneously fending off his knees and feet. He had jammed his back into the corner of the couch and was using his feet to push me further away. _Far out, he's strong_.

He managed to get both feet on my stomach and lower ribs and straightened his legs, pushing me further away from him and freeing his other arm. He un-paused the game and started playing again, while I tried to hit him behind the knees, to get them to buckle.

"Weak as piss," he taunted me, not even looking away from the screen. _Fine_.

I flung myself away from his feet and his legs dropped to the couch. I scrambled up and made a lunge, but he recovered with just enough time to get a foot on my stomach to block me.

"Ooph."

"Clever, Harry! But not clever enough!" He cackled, mimicking a Weasley twin. A couple more attempts ended in the same result. He continued to laugh at me. "Don't blow a fuse, Bella."

I growled in frustration, grabbed the knees of his loose trackies and dacked him with a sharp tug.

"Argh!" The look of shock on his face as he simultaneously made a grab for the waistband of his pants and held the controller up and out of reach was priceless. I burst into hysterical laughter and rolled back into my arm-rest of the couch, clutching at my stomach.

"You're bloody lucky I was wearing jocks this morning, Burkey."

That stopped the laughter in my throat.

"Yuck and yuck. I do not want to hear that you go around commando."

"Just making you aware of the possibility," he replied.

My face scrunched in utter disgust. I got up from the couch, needing to distance myself from the thought of him being jocks-less. Walking into the kitchen, a light bulb went off in my head.

"I s'pose that's your choice; whether or not you want to risk the possibility of everyone seeing your bits," I said, turning his scare tactics back on him and letting him know I wasn't afraid of dacking him in public.

I came back into the lounge with a stack of toast and Vegemite, and we traded off eating and playing, although Emmett did attempt to eat his toast sans hands. I was torn between wanting to see if he could manage it and wanting to take over the game again. The game won out; there were endless opportunities to see him do stupid shit with food.

The morning passed with little fanfare, and by lunch we were ready to get out of the house, but to do what, we didn't know.

At home, Saturday was a day of sport. I played netball for the same club Em played footy for, so that we could travel together and the parents didn't have to be driving to completely different parts of the state for us. So our usual Saturday was often an early morning, sometimes over an hour's drive and a day of participating in and watching sport.

But now Saturdays were empty. We needed to find a new rhythm.

"I wanna play one bounce," I blurted out of nowhere.

"Um, OK. I'll ask Chuck if we can get a ring to put on the side of the house. Or maybe I can make one, like Dad did," he added the last bit as a throw-away comment, I was sure, but I liked that idea.

Mum flat our refused to allow any kind of ring, basketball or netball, on the house, so Dad fashioned me a netball ring, using the inner of an old tractor tyre as the base to weight it. Em and I were able to tip it on its side and move it wherever we wanted in the backyard. I really regretted having to leave it behind, but I got excited with the prospect of Em making a replacement.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted him to make one, rather than having one fixed to the house, and I told him so.

"It's a lot more work, Bella," he tried to reason.

"But a fixed ring limits the game so much! You know it does," I appealed to his competitive side. Em loved lobbing the ball from wherever in the yard, the 360° playing field highly superior to the 180 a fixed ring would give. He knew it, and I could see it in his eyes when he joined my way of thinkin'.

"Well, no time like the present, I s'pose," he said, getting up from the couch, while I gave a cheer. "Get dressed. Let's go see Chuck and see what he thinks."

We pulled up to the cop shop a little nervous, having never visited Chuck at work before. We walked in with all the apprehension of having never before been inside a station for any reason. Thankfully, the place was pretty small and had fairly open plan, so Chuck spotted us before we did him.

"Hey kids. What's up? Something wrong?"

"Nah, nah, nah. We just had a coupla questions and thought we'd come visit," Em said as Chuck waved us into his office, away from the kind, but persistent gazes of the other officers.

We explained the netball ring we wanted to build, and bless him, Chuck was all for it.

"You know, Billy used to have a whole lot of welding gear. He did a lot of piece work for the folks around here. I'm sure Jake's got it stashed away somewhere in that shed of his. He may know how to use it, too," he offered. Em's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Brilliant! Even if he doesn't, I did a couple of years of metals back home, so I should know enough to get us by."

Charlie nodded his assent, and we got up to get out of his hair.

"You might wanna take Jake's truck, too. Wouldn't want to see any hurt come to Toula, trying to move big pieces." He chuckled when he saw Emmett visibly shudder at the thought.

With a wave of thanks and a warning that there would probably be no dinner tonight, we left Chuck to go see what Jake was up to.

When we pulled up to the red house in La Push, Jake's head popped out of the shed.

"Hey guys! Back again so soon!"

"Well what can I say? I missed ya, big guy!" Em boomed, making Jake laugh.

"You know, if I swung that way, you'd be it for me," he said, batting his eyelashes at Emmett, cracking us both up.

"Actually, mate, we've come here on a bit of a mission, hoping you'd help us."

"I'm intrigued," he drawled from the side of his smile. "What kind of mission?"

We spent a little time explaining the project and, as predicted, Jake was happy to join us. We got it sorted that we'd head to the scrap metal yard for the base and the pole, but we'd most likely have to buy the ring.

Jake looked over his shoulder at Toula.

"We'll do better goin' in the truck. C'mon," he said, as he led us around the side of his shed.

"Wow," I breathed. Truck was right, it was pretty much a ute, but it was _huge_. A traditional American truck. "Look at that beast - it's awesome!"

"Yeah? You want it? I'm trying to convince Dad to get rid of it. Once I've got the Rabbit up and running, we won't really need it and we don't really need the expense of two cars when I'm the only one driving."

I walked along the side of the faded red truck and had a look into the tray; it was massive. Em yanked open the passenger side door and it gave a reluctant creak, making my grin widen.

"Get in, ya wierdo," Em said with a roll of his eyes. I climbed up into the cab of the truck and slid to the middle of the bench seat.

"The seats are so springy!"

"Look at you, gettin' all excited about a car. What happened to 'they get you from A to B?'"

"This isn't just a car, Harvs; it's a piece of American history!"

"American history is right, the thing's ancient," Jake responded as he climbed up into the cab. With a turn of the key, the engine quickly roared to life and idled fairly smoothly for the monster that it was.

"Not bad for ancient history," Em remarked.

"Yeah, I rebuilt the engine at the end of last year, before I found the Rabbit," he smirked.

We spent a good couple of hours scouring the junk yard, rifling through the trash, looking for our treasure. It was a great afternoon with Jake, laughing and catching up from the last few days.

Em finally came across a pole that was the perfect strength and height, adding to our find of a wheel base.

"So now all we need is the support bar for the base. If we don't find a decent ring here, we can always buy one," Em said, wiping some mud off the pole.

"I'll show you my ring," Jake said, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Emmett and I both let out surprised laughs, thick with approval.

"Marvellous first effort," Em commended.

"Massive!" I agreed.

Within another 30 minutes, we'd found a good, flat piece of steel that would act as the support base, and on our way out of there, I spotted an old basketball backboard. Luckily the ring was still attached and perfectly round. Absolute score. Emmett completely destroyed the backboard, getting the ring off it, and quite visibly enjoyed every second.

When we got back to Jake's, Billy informed us that Chuck was going to meet us there for dinner. We took our hoard to the shed and started to set up the welding gear and a decent working space. We were pretty much set up when we heard the cruiser pull up and Chuck yelling "Pizza!" on his way into the house. The boys were off like a shot, our project completely forgotten with the prospect of food.

The rest of the evening was spent eating and drinking in the Black's lounge room, and watching the football. I half paid attention to the game on the screen. I was more listening to what was going on around me, the discussion of the sport and the playful banter that came along with it. I was severely outnumbered, but it didn't matter too much; I was enjoying my new pseudo-family. I felt comfortable and safe with each and every one of these guys, and it was a relief to feel we had something this stable, so quickly. The grin on Em's face throughout the night just reinforced the feeling.

After breakfast Sunday, I hit the books, hard. I was going for a steady two hours before Em burst into my room.

"What's the radius of a circle, if its circumference is thirty-seven centimetres?"

"Two-thirds of bugger off. What's the national sport of Zambia?" I asked, looking at him over my shoulder briefly as he launched himself onto my bed.

"Handball," he stated. I didn't know if he was serious or being disgusting, so I let that one go through to the keeper and kept going with my maths. Determined to be a pain, he started singing:

"Some motherfuckers think they're born to dance,

Some motherfuckers think they're born to-o dance."

"Not you," I could help but put in, just like the song. He jumped up off the bed.

"Not me!

Shake it like you don't know what you're lookin' for,

Shake it like bacon, ice cold, she's floored.

Inside, inside, inside, inside, inside, outside,

Outside, outside, outside, outside, outside, iiiinside.

Twirl for me,

Twirl like a little girl."

I could see him twirling with his hands up like an elephantine ballerina in my peripheral vision, but I refused to laugh, knowing he was trying to distract me. He huffed a sigh and collapsed back onto my bed.

"Have you finished yet?" He asked.

"No."

"How 'bout now?"

"No."

"I'm making a cuppa. Want one?"

"Yep," _Just get out_, I thought.

He was back in record time with two steaming mugs. I turned when he gave me my mug, facing him while he sat on the floor, his back resting against my bed.

"What's goin' on, Harves?"

"Nuthin," he shook his head. "Just need a break. I only have media stuff to go, but I need to chill before I start it,"

I shrugged. "'K. Heard much from home this week?"

"Mmm, not much. Jesse sent us a play-by-play of the game this morning. You can read it later. Jonno and Robbo's team got into the under 21's grand final, which was pretty much expected, since they've only lost two or three games this season. Not much else, really. Everything's pretty much gearing towards exams now. Coursework is finished and they're starting summary. Heard anything from Scotty and Adele?"

How Adele skipped the nickname process, I'm not sure, but she did. No one ever called her anything but Adele.

"Yeah, same from them. Not much going on. Their fast-tracking subjects are finishing up and the Year 11 subjects only a couple of weeks behind. Got an email from Scotty this morning - she's already pissing me off, bloody Collingwood supporter. It's going to be a long week," I grumbled.

"Oh yeah! I'm gonna email her tonight and give her shit about not being able to judge distance or eat any pies at the footy; one-eyed, one-toothed bastards," he finished with a cackle.

Ah, Collingwood supporters, they're always such great fodder for flack. You could be a person of most pristine character, but if you barrack for the Collingwood Magpies, all and sundry will have no qualms about giving off about how much of a feral bush pig you are, and all ya bogan family. And it barely bothers the bastards; they just give you the finger and possibly a few crass words. All the love in their hearts goes to their beloved 'pies' who can do no wrong, even if they play a dirty as game. Oh, the days when they would choke, when they got the 'Colliwobbles'. Unfortunately, this year they were a force to be reckoned with - and that made the supporters all the more unbearable, because for once they had something to be smug about.

I finished up what was left of my maths and chem and made us some lunch. Just as we were finishing up, there was a quick rap on the front door.

"Sounded like the tiny hand of a certain chook," Em said as he left the kitchen to answer the door.

"Hi, Emmett!" The excited greeting left absolutely no doubt.

"Chicken! I missed you!" he boomed back. I stuck my head around the door and saw him trying to crush Alice's ribs in a hug.

"Ease up, Cassanova, you'll give her the wrong idea," I drawled.

"No way," came the muffled response. "He's just a teddy bear, right?" Her skinny little arms snaked around his ribs and squeezed hard until Emmett himself coughed and spluttered.

"Good hugs, Chook, good hugs. Righto, I'm going to leave you duckies to it. I'll be over at Cullo's. He's just 'round the block," he assured me, noticing my worried expression.

"I know where he lives," Alice nodded.

"Course you do," I said with a wink.

"Catch!" Em yelled, turning and running down the porch steps, waving over his head.

Alice wheeled on me as soon as the door slammed shut.

"That was mean!"

"Was not. I was just noting my confidence that you would know where Edward lives."

"I know where almost everyone lives, Bella. I've lived here my whole life," she said, frowning at me, her hands on her hips.

"OK, OK. Come on." I led a pouting Alice into the lounge. Once we were set up with drinks and snacks, we put on 27 Dresses and proceeded to ignore it completely.

"Seems you and Emmett are settling in OK," she commented, waving her hand over the Harry Potter Xbox games left on the coffee table from the day before.

"Oh yeah," I nodded. "We're getting there."

"How very non-committal." Alice rolled her eyes at me, and I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Yeah well, it's just the usual response."

"But this is _me_, Bella! I don't want the usual response!" I was smirking at her stern frown, but as usual, relented to her.

"Well it really _is_ getting there. Within a couple of weeks, we're basically settled at school and hanging out with our friends on the weekend," I said with a flourish of my hand toward her and the front door. "Chuck's great, too. He's such a cruisy guy. Although the poor bugger is having a bit of a time getting used to having us 24 hours, I think."

"What do you mean?"

"He can't hack our fighting."

"What? When do you two fight?" she asked, disbelieving. "You two are nothing but super-sweet to each other at school. Although, you don't mind picking on others," she said with a hint of petulance at the end.

"Hehe, we're pretty well behaved at school. We're each others best friends and worst enemies. It just depends on the situation, I'd say. We're very tame in public at the mo; we're still finding our feet."

"This is you guys tame? You're nice to each other, but you're not tame! You're picking on people you just met, and Emmett went crazy on Lauren."

"Please, that's nothing. And with Lauren, what do you expect? She was being an absolute mole and he just told her to pull her head in. But, we're not that well behaved for Chuck. We kind of let loose when we're at home." I told her about the times he'd already had to tell us off, and the fight he wasn't present for just yesterday. Her eyes widened with incredulity with every mention.

"You guys are crazy. Do you honestly call the Chief 'Chuck' to his face?"

"Course. It would be rude to call him anything behind his back," I said, with a bit of defiance. Chuck was tops, we'd never do anything to be intentionally disrespectful. Alice was shaking her head in surprise and was giggling, so I knew she didn't mean to imply that. She took a deep breath and changed topics.

"So, do you keep in contact with anyone from home?"

"Oh yeah, I've had a couple of emails from a couple of people from home. But it's only been a couple of weeks, and they're heading toward the pointy end of the year, so it's all a bit hectic."

"Do you miss them?" she asked quietly. I knew she was no longer talking about my friends, but I played oblivious, not sure I wanted to go there yet.

"Sure. We've missed a few important things already, parties and stuff, and just everyday stuff as well. But we still email, so it makes it a bit less."

"Bella." The one word and the look on her face said it all: shit not bought. I sighed.

"As if you even need to ask. Of course I do, every friggin' day. I wake up and have to remember where we are and why we're here, and realise it's because _they're not_ here. That's not a holiday, lemme tell ya." I paused, feeling the swirl of emotion that I usually tried to keep at bay. "I miss them both all the time, but one more than the other at certain times, ya know? I miss Dad when I'm doing homework 'cause he used to help me. And when Em and I are going hammer an' tongs because he used to antagonise us as much as yell at us to behave. I miss Mum at those times, too, because she was often the only sane voice in the house. I miss her most at the end of the day, though," I ended softly.

"Why?" Alice pressed gently, matching my tone.

"We just used to hang out. We would watch our TV shows or a DVD if nothing was on and have a cuppa or a milo." I smiled and snuggled further into the couch at the memory of the two of us cackling at the girls on Ladette to Lady, or feign-swooning over various leading men in the period dramas we loved watching. _God, I missed her_. The emotion was weighing on my chest like a tonne of bricks. "I wanna see Emmett," I stated, pushing past the lump in my throat.

"OK sweetie, we'll go find him."

As we walked down the path toward Edward's house, Alice took my hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Thanks for telling me about them," she said shyly, seemingly unsure of my reaction. I was still at risk of crying if I spoke, so I just squeezed her hand and tried to smile. Success doubtful.

Alice smiled at me as she turned and walked up a driveway only two blocks from Chucks. He seriously was close by.

Edward answered the door with a wide swing and a big grin.

"Hey girls! Em said you two were hanging out. C'mon in!" He stood back and closed the door once we had passed him.

"We're in the games room back there," he said cheerily, leading us from the entry, down a corridor that was littered with photos of him from a baby up; playing sport, at the beach, many with his parents, and even a few with Rosalie and another young girl that looked so similar, it had to be her sister, Vera.

As we walked past a very recent one of Edward and his Dad, Alice pointed to it and mouthed 'yum' at me, rolling her eyes for emphasis. I couldn't help but chuckle.

We entered a large room at the back of the house with a pool table on one side and some big black leather couches around a massive flat-screen on the wall. Em's head flipped around to us as we entered the room.

"Hello ladies!" he called. As soon as he made eye contact with me, his left hand shot up in the air and waved me over. "B! Check this out; I'm kicking Bluey's arse at _ice hockey_ of all things."

I dropped onto the couch and his arm crashed down across my shoulders, putting me in a headlock as he took the controller in both hands.

"Fire it up again, Bluey," he threw at Edward, who settled on the couch to the left of Alice.

"I have no idea how you're winning, most of your team has spent half their time in the penalty box," he grumbled good-naturedly as they resumed play.

Alice looked over at us as I fought against Emmett's headlock while he and Edward battled it out, but the bugger wasn't making it easy. I poked him in the underarm, gross I know, but he squeaked and jumped, loosening his arm enough for me to take advantage and get my head out of trouble. I shuffled back and settled on the couch.

"Dude, did you just squeak?" Edward asked, eyes wide but still glued to the TV.

"I think you need to get ya hearing checked, Bluey," Em said, feigning nonchalance.

"Why do you keep calling him Bluey?" Alice asked.

"Apparently it's because I have red hair," Edward offered.

"I don't get it."

"Don't worry, neither do I. Oh shut up, you two!" Em and I were snickering, listening to their exchange.

"Australians," Edward muttered and rolled his eyes.

"Weirdest. Humour. Ever," Alice stated in agreement with him.

We whiled away the next hour mucking around with the ice hockey, each taking turns, but I was terrible at the quick controls that these sorts of sports games needed.

The boys teased both Alice and myself relentlessly, but I maintained that I was more of a quest gamer, while Alice deemed that 'video games ate into serious shopping time' and so rarely played in her own time.

It was cute to see Alice and Edward interact; neither was overtly flirtatious with the other, but you could see in the way they laughed and fought over the game how close they were and how much they really liked each other. Edward quickly got frustrated with Alice's inability with the game.

"Here Alice, let me help," he tried, making a grab for the controller, but she leaned away.

"No, Edward! You said it was my turn!"

Em and I grinned at the universal argument. Alice slammed one of her players into the boards with absolutely no interference from mine. Emmett howled and Edward covered his face.

"Christ, Chook, I can't watch you any more." His voice moaned from behind his hands.

"Wheeey!" both Em and I cheered incredibly loudly, both hands up in the air.

Their head swivelled our way simultaneously, their expressions exact replicas of each others' surprised confusion.

"What is goin' on over there?" Edward asked.

"Success! You're stuck with it now, Chook." Alice grimaced at Emmett's jibe before glaring at Edward.

Em offered a palm, which I high-fived and went back to wiping the ice with Alice's players - or just sucking at the game less than she did.

A little while later, Em and I left to walk back to Chuck's.

"Holy crap, how nice is his house?" I commented as we walked.

"Yarp. His Dad's a doctor. Guess he does alright."

"Guess so."

"So," he cocked an eyebrow at me. "What happened?"

"Meh, nuthin' drastic. Chook just asked about the parents and I got a little sooky."

"Just over that?" he asked, his tone disapproving.

"Yeah!" I said with indignation, my inflection changing about three times. "It wasn't much. She just asked what I missed about the parents and that. It just got a bit hairy when I thought about it too close. We came over before the tears came."

"Fair enough," he nodded.

"So, you and Bluey have a good arvo?"

Em laughed. "He was so fuckin' confused by that. Absolute gold. We just beached on that awesome couch and played ice hockey, was tops. You and Chook BFF's now, then?"

"Whatever an' evah," I confirmed playfully.

"Amen," he finished the Ben Folds album title for me.

The evening passed fairly quietly; Chuck doing his duty by making sure we had completed all of our homework and presently falling asleep in front of the telly. Em went through our DVD's and chucked on The Fifth Element. We settled into our ends of the couch and watched the entire movie without more than a few snores from Chuck.

As Em packed up the DVD and turned off the TV, I smiled. "Thanks, Em."

"No worries," he said with a tired grin, waving me upstairs to bed while he turned around to Chuck.

I was at the base of the stairs when I heard Em trying to wake him.

"C'mon Da-" I whirled at his cut off syllable. We caught each others eyes, both immediately filled with tears. "Sorry, Boo," he whispered.

I shook my head at his apology. "S'OK. You right?" I asked, knowing that slip-up had shaken him up more than he would probably let on to me anyway.

"Course," he chuckled darkly. "He's just like Dad. Wants control of the TV but doesn't stay awake for it. Come on, Chuck. Time for bed, mate." Chuck woke at Em's shake on his shoulder and sent us off to bed while he closed up the house for the night.

In bed, I wondered whether I should expect a visit. Probably not; while Em was decent at dealing with my anxieties, he didn't much like to acknowledge his own. I considered going to check on him, but thought better of it. He'd probably just get aggravated at me and it would just make it worse. Best to leave him to himself until he decides he wants a chat.

Chapter End Notes:

****Definitions:****

**Also a couple of repeats in here as it has been a while...**

**Moccies: Moccasins, UGG boots.**

**SAC: School Assessed Coursework. The main assessment other than exams for years 11 and 12 in Victoria**

**Trackies: Track pants, sweat pants.**

**Dacked: Slang word for pants is 'dacks', so dacked is the same as 'pantsed' - pulling down the pants of another person.**

**Jocks: Underwear.**

**Netball: One of the main Australian women's sports. Non contact and you can't move more than one step when you have the ball. Score by shooting the ball into a ring at the end of the court, same as a basketball ring, but without the backboard.**

**One Bounce: Goal-shooting skills game for netball. Two players taking turns at shooting for goal, if the shot misses, the other player runs after the ball and has to let it bounce only once before touching it and shooting for goal from that spot.**

**Ute: Short for utility vehicle. Pretty much a 'truck', with a cabin and a tray out the back, but they are quite a bit smaller in Australia. Even your small trucks are bigger than most of our utes.**

**Watching the Football: I have had both my pre-reader and beta tell me to either add 'game' or lose the 'the', but in Australia, when you're watching the game on TV, you 'watch the footy' - even if it reads like you are sitting in the lounge room, watching a ball sit on the carpet.**

**Go Through To The Keeper: Cricket term, letting a ball that has no danger of hitting the wicket go through to the keeper, rather than hitting it, when that action would likely stuff up and get you out.**

**Fast-tracking: When you take a class of the year-level above you.**

**Giving off: having a go, bad-mouthing.**

**Feral Bush Pig: Fairly self-explanatory. Fantastic insult, always feels very descriptive :)**

**Bogan: Derogatory generalising term for lower socio-economic class, very ocker, usually with lower eduction.**

**Milo: Chocolate malt based milk flavouring. Australian institution.**

**Tops: Another word for great.**

**Song: Inside, Outside - The Grates**


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